When: 5 December 2023, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM (CET)
Where: InfoPoint and Webex Meetings
With 10.6 million migrants in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region – nearly half of whom are women, the area is theatre to a massive movement of people. If migration from one side offers considerable development opportunities to both countries of origin and destination, and to migrants themselves, from the other increases all kind of risks in particular for women and girls.
Violence against women migrant workers and trafficking are part of the broader spectrum of violence against women and girls. For migrant women, including survivors of violence, services are often not well equipped to meet their needs and are often not well coordinated among institutions, including police, criminal justice, health and social welfare services.
Safe and Fair: Realizing women migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region started in 2018 and activities will come to an end on 31 December 2023. The action is being carried out in the ASEAN region in countries of origin (Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Philippines and Viet Nam) and countries of destination (Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand). It is implemented by ILO and UN Women, in collaboration with UNODC, with the overriding objective of strengthening labour migration governance and address risks inherent in migration systems that can result in violence and trafficking, strengthen rights-based and gender-responsive approaches to violence against women and labour migration governance and support access to essential services.
Safe and Fair is part of the EU-UN joint Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls, a global partnership of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations. The initiative is currently ongoing in 34 programmes, 26 countries, 6 regional programmes and 2 UN Trust Funds.
Description
The main purpose of the InfoPoint is to mark the end of the Safe and Fair project, to highlight the main outcomes and key results and to present best practices and challenges by giving voice to partners working in the field.
The project had three main objectives:
- Women migrant workers are better protected by gender-sensitive labour migration governance frameworks
- Women migrant workers are less vulnerable to violence and trafficking and benefit from coordinated responsive quality services
- Data, knowledge and attitudes on the rights and contributions of women migrant workers are improved
Following some introductory remarks from INTPA, ILO and UN Women, Safe and Fair staff will present the main achievements and will project some videos on women migrants. After a short presentation on the way forward a Q&A session will follow. INTPA and ILO will then close the conference.
Speakers
- Jean Pierre Sacaze, Head of sector of Gender in INTPA G1 – Gender Equality, Human Rights, Democratic Governance
- Nilim Baruah, Senior Labour Migration Specialist, Decent Work Team (DWT)- Bangkok, International Labour Organization Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ILO ROAP)
- Melissa Alvarado, Regional Manager, Ending Violence against Women, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP)
- Deepa Bharathi, Chief Technical Advisor, Safe and Fair Programme, ILO ROAP
- Audrey Le Guével, Programme and Operations Officer, ILO-Brussels
