As part of the Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW) APWWmeet Series 2020 this forum focuses on the ongoing gender impact of COVID-19 in the Asia and Pacific Region.
Summary : Across the Pacific and Asia, women and girls in all their diversity are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Existing gender inequalities are exacerbated during a crisis, with the result that women and girls are not only undertaking more unpaid domestic work, are less able to access essential health services, are more vulnerable to economic hardships, are experiencing ever-rising rates of violence, sexual abuse and control from their husbands, partners and families/kinship groups, and they are not at the table in designing the national pandemic strategies. Women in all their diversity are losing ground to previous gains and are experiencing shrinking democratic spaces. The impacts of COVID-19 restrictions are creating a disproportionate impact on members of our society due to our delay in creating equitable societies.
Presenters :
- Nalini Singh, Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, Fiji (Pacific). Nalini is the Executive Director of the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM). A feminist, human rights activist, and social development specialist.
- Yukiko Oda, Japan Women’s Watch, Japan (East Asia). Yukiko is the Vice-Convenor of Japan Women’s Watch (JAWW) , she is co-facilitator of the Gender Unit of the Japan Society Network on the SDG’s and a member of the Advisory Committee for Environmental and Social Considerations for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
- Aurora De Dios, Women and Gender Institute (WAGI), Philippines (South East Asia). Aurora is Senior Project Director of WAGI where she was Executive Director for 1o years. She has served as Chair of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, member of the UN CEDAW Committee, and Philippine representative to the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Women and Children’s Rights.
- Farida Shaheed, Shirkat Gah, Pakistan (South Asia). Farida is the Executive Director of Shirkat Gah Women’s Resource Centre in Pakistan and founding member of the Pakistan women’s rights network, Women’s Action Forum (WAF), and a member of the transnational feminist network Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML). She was appointed the first UN Independent Expert in the field of cultural rights in 2009 and served as Special Rapporteur on the same issue from 2012 to 2015.
Moderator:
- Luz Maria Martinez. Luz is a Steering Committee member of APWW and Secretariat head of South East Asia Women’s Watch (SEAWatch). A feminist with over 25 years of experience in the Asia-Pacific region, she is part of the Women and Gender Institute (WAGI) special projects office and a board member of the International Women’s Peace Center in Kampala, Uganda.
Presentation materials: