Struggles, Unwavering Commitments, Feminist Visions, Solidarity and Love – A Glimpse of APWLD 35th Anniversary Publication – Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)

Introduction

The origin of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development or APWLD can be traced back to the Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985, where around 1,900 delegates from 157 Member States and 12,000 NGO delegates participated to review and appraise the achievements of the ‘United Nations Decade for Women’.

At the conference, hundreds of women from Asia, Africa and Latin America came together to discuss the need to develop a network of women’s organisations across the Global South to clarify the role of law, and to identify how the law could serve as an instrument to advance women’s legal, social, economic and political status.

This network was named the Women, Law and Development (WLD) Forum. APWLD emerged as a part of the WLD Forum, through dialogues among women lawyers, social scientists, academics and activists from Asia and the Pacific.

Tagaytay, the Philippines, 1986

In December 1986, 52 women-delegates from 10 Asian and two Pacific countries met in Tagaytay, the Philippines, and made the decision to establish the regional feminist organisation – APWLD, and set up a Secretariat in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Secretariat relocated to Chiang Mai, Thailand in 1997.

Over the past 35 years, APWLD has contributed to building, sustaining and strengthening feminist and women’s human rights movements in Asia and the Pacific. It has grown from 52 founding members from 12 countries in 1986 to 265 members representing groups of diverse women from 30 countries covering five sub-regions of Asia-Pacific by the end of 2021.

APWLD’s strengths come from our diverse membership with a shared analysis on the systems of oppression women experience, determination to end such oppressive structures in solidarity with other peoples’ and social justice movements as well as the visionary leadership to advance women’s human rights and Development Justice.

For APWLD, it is crucial to document the feminist journey of our members and their communities, which will guide not only us at APWLD but hopefully also larger feminist movements with their stories of struggles, unwavering commitments, feminist visions, solidarity and love.

Our collective efforts to document APWLD’s herstory started more than seven years ago in time for APWLD’s 30th anniversary. Our members’ decision was very clear – that our herstory making and documentation of it shall continue. With APWLD’s 35th anniversary approaching, we are proud to share a glimpse of the stories of our diverse, ‘younger’ and intersectional members and their communities. Read the stories of our five members, and join us in celebrating APWLD’s 35th anniversary as we launch the full publication containing 30 inspiring feminist movement builders’ stories from 19 countries. The publication and micro-website will be launched in July 2022.

Name: Helen Samu Hakena

Organisation: Leitana Nehan Women Development Agency (LNWDA)

Country/Subregion: Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, the Pacific

Engagement with APWLD

Regional Council (ReC) member: 2007-2011
Programme Organising Committee (POC) member : Breaking out of Marginalisation (BOOM) 2013-2020
Programme partner: Climate Justice Feminist Participatory Action Research (CJ – FPAR)

Helen Samu Hakena of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, co-founded the Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency (LNWDA) in 1992 to help restore peace in the civil war-torn island. Women were at the frontlines, opposing the huge copper mine in Bougainville that led to a ten-year conflict. Helen worked at the most grassroots levels to ensure women were central to both peace agreements and development initiatives.

Since 2013, Helen has been the mentor of Climate Justice FPAR in collaboration with APWLD. Her action research investigated the impacts of climate change on women who became environmental refugees in Carteret Islanders in Papua New Guinea, where the rising tides and increasing storm surges swallowed homes. These communities are the first climate refugees due to a government relocation plan that resettled them in camps in war-ravaged Bougainville.

As a well known women’s advocate on Bougainville, Helen has contested the elections in recent years. To this day, she continues to promote women’s rights at the local level despite attacks on women human rights defenders who are branded as witches.

APWLD interviewed Helen in January 2021 and below is her story.

Becoming a feminist and women human rights defender

My negative experiences during the decade-long Bougainville Conflict, the largest conflict in Oceania since the end of World War II which lasted from 1988 to 1998 pushed me to establish the Leitana Nehan Women Development Agency (LNWDA) in 1992.

During the conflict, I became pregnant and gave birth prematurely in an abandoned bank. While I was fortunate enough to survive the event, I witnessed two other women give birth at the same time and die before my eyes. I could still hear their screams for help. There was no health service available in Bougainville at that time, and my uncle was the only doctor we had access to. Later, he died of overwork.

Witnessing other women die right before my eyes prompted me to act. I began by rallying my school friends, and then through them, we reached out to all like-minded women friends. All schools were closed at that time, so we traveled from village to village, initiating conversations about restoring peace.

Many women echoed us because they all shared the simple belief that no woman should suffer what we were going through. Over the years, our network for restoring peace has grown rapidly. Today, we have over 1,000 volunteers who work throughout Bougainville for peace and awareness-raising in the communities.

It is important to note that there was no government in place back then, and we were alone in the struggle.

Officially, I started the women’s movement for peace on November 8, 1992, a time when all authorities were too scared to make any move. It was women who pushed for peace in Bougainville.

Over the years, our organisation has received the Millennium Peace Prize for Women and several other awards from the United Nations. I personally received the Individual Human Rights Award and Gender Excellence Award in recognition of my work during the Conflict.

Growing together with APWLD

In 2007, I was introduced to APWLD at a conference. Since then, APWLD has consistently supported my participation in international conferences. I have also participated in APWLD’s capacity-building training, such as Climate Justice FPAR, and made lifelong connections with feminists from other countries through APWLD. With a strong network of feminist activists, APWLD links the regional network with international organisations. For example, women’s issues in Bougainville would not have been raised at UN level without APWLD’s network.

APWLD provides a toolkit for feminist activists that can be used by both the mentor and young researcher in areas. For instance, FPAR is great for involving grassroots women in praxis-oriented research. We used it with the Carteret islanders to discuss climate crisis issues specific to the island. Government representatives were present to hear their voices. In this way, those affected the most by the climate crisis can share from their perspective, build connections among themselves, and reinforce their solidarity and movement. We have also been using the FPAR toolkit in other areas in recent years, including monitoring elections in Bougainville.

As a former ReC member and BOOM POC member, I hold APWLD’s Climate Justice programme and the BOOM programme close to my heart, because these are the two main issues we face in Bougainville. I was very impressed with APWLD’s efficiency and work culture. Rina, the former BOOM programme officer, communicated effectively and linked the members for collective sharing, learning and action.

As a result, I have actively participated in dialogue, seeing APWLD’s events and training as fantastic opportunities for building relationships and understanding. My biggest challenge in engaging in the BOOM programme is the unstable internet connection. The connection here isn’t very good. But APWLD staff members are always good. They would not leave us behind, and would always check whether we were receiving their emails. When they didn’t hear from us, they knew exactly that the network was not working. Then, after a period of time, they would try to communicate again or call.

Pacific Islands are often forgotten as we are small countries floating in the ocean. Our issues, however, are quite serious. For example, global sea level rise will affect islands the most. We should be seen, heard and included, and APWLD is one of the organisations that help make that possible.

Building the feminist movement in Bougainville

Despite our success and the support of APWLD, women still face stereotypes that prevent them from taking on leadership roles in Bougainville.

The government appears to be inclusive of women as evidenced by their representation in government. However, it is only a token of appreciation for what we have done during the Conflict. Women lack proper training and education and are not in decision-making positions. We have to push hard for women to be included in education and training to give them access to skilled occupations and high-level decision-making positions. We hope to have more educated and experienced women so that they can better represent women’s voices and continue pushing for women’s human rights and gender equality.

Poverty is another challenge women face. Culturally, it is the women who are expected to meet the needs of their families and tackle any issues that may affect their families. The majority of Bougainville’s women depend on the ocean for their livelihood. However, the pandemic and climate crisis threaten their livelihoods. Economic and human development have been drastically slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in increased unemployment and a shortage of odd/temporary jobs.

The rising global sea level is also eroding our islands. The fishing grounds are now under water and covered by big waves, making fishing and transportation between islands more costly and dangerous than ever. As a result, we lost many women and children to the sea while others struggled in financial hardship.

Also, women trapped in poverty are unlikely to provide better education and training to the next generation, as many mothers (especially single mothers) are not able to pay the school fees for their children. Women’s economic security is a major concern. Nevertheless, our women are taking initiatives to save themselves, for example, by setting up small-medium enterprises, and the government is yet to provide any assistance. Hence, we push for women’s participation in politics, although it is hard because for example we are unable to fund our candidates’ trips to meet and speak to voters. We also believe there is bribery involved that causes women candidates to lose.

All in all, our work is making a difference. Women are becoming more aware of their rights. For example, more are willing to report violence against them. Thus, we built networks for intimate relationship violence survivors across Papua New Guinea. Women share their experiences on the networks. We have various referral pathways with the police, legal courts and the hospitals. We also founded the Human Rights Commission at the Autonomous Bougainville Government to advocate for women’s rights.

Ways moving forward

At the institutional level, I hope that APWLD will be able to assist us in tackling land/resource grabbing issues. Logging and mining companies are taking away our lands and forests without paying compensation or being held responsible for environmental damage.

I also hope APWLD will come to the Pacific and run its workshops here, in which case, more local women and activists will be able to participate and learn. Furthermore, I hope APWLD will continue connecting us with international organisations like the UN, for example, by supporting Papua New Guinea who will be reporting on the Universal Periodic Review in April this year.

We expect APWLD to train us. From the ground up, APWLD can teach us how to read a country report, how to incorporate it into a CEDAW report, and how to relate the 17 goals of the SDGs to human rights. We need more capacity building training so that we can become stronger and cease to be disconnected.

Also, I have some suggestions for the movement building. First of all, I hope APWLD will continue promoting and strengthening its membership in the Pacific. New members are needed as well as strengthening the relationship with current members from this subregion. It is very easy for the small islands floating in the sea to become isolated in their struggles, even though they face issues sometimes simply too large for them to handle alone. Assisting APWLD in this process would be highly appreciated by my organisation and me.

Second, we must help the next generations of feminists and activists grow. APWLD can play a key role in this. For example, we need more mentors/trainers to teach FPAR to young women, Generation Next. We gather Generation Next quarterly for training and capacity building. We are very flexible and always design the training around their interests and needs. By training them as trainers, we can reach more and more young women. APWLD can support us in many ways, for example, by providing more trainers or training to our trainers, helping us raise funds and inviting Generation Next to other countries for training after the pandemic.

Last but not least, I hope APWLD will begin clustering members from the same subregion, as each subregion has distinct priorities within their respective movements, thus prioritising different issues in each subregion instead of focusing on a few issues for all subregions.

Name: Srijana Pun

Organisation: Women Forum for Women in Nepal (WOFOWON), Women’s Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC)

Country/Subregion: Nepal, South Asia

Engagement with APWLD

Programme Organising Committee (POC) member: Breaking out of Marginalisation (BOOM) 2012-2020
Programme partner: BOOM Feminist Participatory Action Research (BOOM FPAR) 2012-2014; Women in Power (WiP) Womanifesto 2018-2019; Feminist Rapid Response Research (FRRR) on COVID-19 2020-2021

Srijana Pun is a 39 years old woman leader, and a strong woman activist who is raising the issues of women working in the informal sector in Nepal. She is a member of National alliance of women human rights defenders representing women from the entertainment sector.

She coped with discrimination, violence and economic difficulties during her childhood, and was affected by conflicts in her community. She struggled to survive and came to Kathmandu for a job in 2001. After working in the informal sector for nearly six years, Srijana established Women for Women in Nepal (WOFOWON) in 2008, the first non-governmental organisation in Nepal working to ensure the rights of women in the informal and entertainment sectors. With Feminist Participatory Action Research in collaboration with APWLD, WOFOWON has been able to build the capacity of women entertainment workers through the development of their rights, skill in advocacy, and building of their movement in several districts in Nepal.

Srijana is also a brilliant songwriter and dance choreographer. To address the societies’ stigma against women entertainment workers, she led WOFOWON to form a Cultural Campaign Group that aimed to change the negative attitude of the society and organise cultural programmes with songs, dances and dramas in right-based songs. It was launched nationwide in front of an audience of more than 2,000 people.

APWLD interviewed Srijana in January 2021 and below is her story.

Becoming a feminist and women human rights defender

When I was very young, I worked in pubs and bars in Kathmandu and faced discrimination, violence and economic difficulty. In 2007, I met Dr. Renu Adhikari and she trained me in leadership-building methods and organisational development. It sparked ideas on how to advocate for women’s rights and to combat discrimination.

Dr. Renu Adhikari, who is also APWLD’s member, is one of Nepal’s most inspiring human rights and women’s rights defenders. For a long time, she was associated with WOREC, which had a Chhahari programme aimed at addressing the health needs of women in the entertainment sector.

Since then, I have been dealing with gender discrimination in the entertainment sector. I began to comprehend how the entertainment sector is perceived in society, how the workers themselves do not accept their work as decent work, and how the families do not accept these workers.

I also learned about human rights, labour rights and women’s rights from Dr. Renu Adhikari. She helped me compare all the discrimination that society is doing against women and helped me find a way to advocate for the rights of women in this sector. As a result, WOFOWON was established in 2008.

Growing together with APWLD

WOFOWON was associated with APWLD through BOOM FPAR in 2012. As a result of FPAR, we gained a better understanding of the research methods which are very helpful for us, for the organisation, and for understanding feminist issues in a broader sense – it has been an ongoing learning process since 2012.

APWLD provided the organisation with the most impressive idea: understanding the movement. Then, tools like network-building and power mapping helped us to take forward our work further from a feminist perspective. Following training with APWLD, we had a better understanding of how we plan things, how we design our strategic objectives, and how we build a movement. Through the training, we realised how to connect with our community members and build stronger relationships. Also, FPAR allowed the organisation itself to develop further and to improve staff ability.

In the initial days after WOFOWON separated from WOREC Chhahari, it faced a severe economic crisis. It was APWLD that supported us to overcome this challenge. Through the research programme and the improvement of abilities, we could collect more funds, as well as more economic resources. APWLD not only provided us with training but also a foundation for us to develop further.

As part of the BOOM POC, I learned how to plan the movement, how to conduct different activities and advocacy projects. Having access to a trade union is important to making sure labour rights issues are addressed in the entertainment sector. It is difficult to press the entertainment sector issue in Nepal since most unions are politicised, but we managed to set up two women’s trade union committees within the entire trade union we had in Nepal. That was through the learning of being part of the POC.

WOFOWON has been also part of Feminist Rapid Response Research (FRRR) on COVID-19, together with APWLD we are supporting women working in entertainment sector to tackle the pandemic and demand accountability to the government. Our young researcher, Pooja Chaudary, also wished to share with you what she learned from the collaboration between WOFOWN and APWLD.

“In addition to providing me with an insight into entertainment sector issues, WOFOWON and APWLD has also helped me to connect them with a global perspective – the GFMP analysis, which has been immensely helpful in terms of knowledge building. It has also been a pleasure to learn from the wonderful facilitators that WOFOWON hires for the leadership programme. My knowledge and ability of leadership and advocacy have developed over time.”

–Pooja Chaudhary, young feminist researcher at WOFOWON

Building the feminist movement in Nepal

The major victories of WOFOWON can be categorised under different headings. The first is about the law. In 2009, the Supreme Court issued a directive to regulate the entertainment industry due to various forms of violence and exploitation of workers. Other than that, there was no law specifically addressing entertainment-related issues during the early days of this organisation. Now, we have the Labour Act 2074, which encompasses both formal and informal sectors. As a result, the entertainment sector also falls within the legal framework that provides one ground for us to advocate for women’s rights despite challenges in implementation.

The second outcome is the change in social perception. The Nepalese society is somewhat aware of human rights and labour rights, but the entertainment sector is still not perceived as decent work, so changing social perception remains a challenge. However, compared to the earlier stages, we can see that the public is slightly aware of the rights of women workers here.

There are many local governments in different parts of Nepal that we have worked with to advocate and address local issues in the entertainment sector in the last four years, particularly with the federalism concept. Some local governments have committed to creating a hearing desk so that they can hear the issues. Some other local governments have allocated budgets for the capacity development of women in the sector. It is great for the organisation to see the perception change of local governments, especially after the federalisation of Nepal.

The recognition of the issues of the entertainment sector at different levels is also an outcome. WOFOWON is a member of different national and international networks, including trade unions, government task force committees and government networks. Of course, we are part of the APWLD, the regional feminist network.

Our movement has achieved one of its main outcomes today by bringing together more women. In the beginning, this organisation had only eight or nine women who worked in the entertainment sector, but now we have more than 800 members who come not only from Kathmandu but from other districts of Nepal as well. We believe that WOFOWON is not only an organisation but rather a movement.

Meanwhile, right holders’ leadership abilities have improved greatly. In the beginning, I was scared to speak publicly and to voice my opinion. Now I can talk about all the issues in the entertainment sector. Not only me, but many other members of the organisation and the training are now able to speak out against the injustices they face. Any time they are given the opportunity to speak out in public, they do so.

I am currently the founding chairperson and executive director of WOFOWON. I am also associated with the WOREC and WHRD organisations so that I can lobby on behalf of the entertainment sector and connect it with women’s rights, and increase visibility and recognition of the work we are doing.

Ways moving forward

As far as the global scenario is concerned, particularly in the context of COVID-19, it would be really nice if APWLD could establish more common platforms for all women activists to interact, or to hold discussion forums in which women can express their opinions or concerns. This kind of platform might be to develop a common issue and conduct a world campaign like the Women’s Global Strike, in which women activists from all over the world share their thoughts and interact in order to come up with common issues that we can raise internationally.

We always feel motivated when the APWLD takes the lead with this kind of campaign, because it means there is APWLD who has been taking on all kinds of activism, the leadership of different kinds of activism, and we will feel we’re united because of APWLD.

Also, we would like to suggest that community members participate more in APWLD activities. Speaking up about their issues will motivate them and allow them to understand the issues both from a local and global perspective.

Thirdly, APWLD has been working globally on issues of women’s rights. We would really appreciate it if APWLD could provide more assistance to us in taking up global issues and connecting them with local issues so that the movement could go forward.

Name: Joan M Salvador (Joms)

Organisation: GABRIELA National Alliance of Filipino Women (GABRIELA)

Country/Subregion: the Philippines, Southeast Asia

Engagement with APWLD

Regional Council (ReC) member: 2014-2017, 2017-2020
Programme and Management Committee (P&M) member: 2017-2020
Programme Organising Committee (POC) member: Grounding the Global (GG) – Regional 2013-2016; Grounding the Global (GG) 2017; Women Interrogating Trade and Corporate Hegemony (WITCH) 2017- present

Joms Salvador is the Secretary General of GABRIELA Philippines, the biggest and broadest women’s organisation in the Philippines that has for nearly four decades worked on women’s rights and welfare of women. She started her involvement with GABRIELA in 1998 as a member and later National Chairperson of GABRIELA-Youth and has since been active in the women’s movement working with grassroots urban and rural communities in the Philippines. She also holds leading roles in regional and global women and people’s organisations, including being part of APWLD.

APWLD interviewed Joms in December 2020 and below is her story.

Becoming a feminist and women human rights defender

Growing up, I was very interested in critical feminist theory. Despite this, I still felt limited in my ability to act on my political beliefs or be part of a larger movement that would contribute to social change until I became involved in the women’s movement with Gabriela Youth, one of the most prominent women’s groups in the Philippines. After graduating, I continued to be involved with Gabriela Youth and became national chairperson in 2003, deputy secretary-general in 2009 and secretary-general in 2012.

In 1998, as a new member of Gabriela Youth, I participated in a peasant integration programme to learn about how women are oppressed and burdened. Legally, women can own agricultural land, but in reality, agricultural lands, especially those held by small farmer tenants, are family-owned. Women are most considered adjuncts in the family structure. Furthermore, I learned that, on average, women agricultural workers earned only one-tenth of their male counterparts for the same work hours.

It was Gabriela that exposed me to the realities of Philippine society. Their analysis and position on the intersections of class and gender are clear that women belonging to particular classes are doubly oppressed. There is a need for a distinct women’s movement to assert women’s rights and their situation’s betterment.

There have been efforts in the legal recognition of women’s rights in the Philippines. For example, I think the Philippines was the first country to have a law on domestic violence in the whole Asia-Pacific. Also, the Philippine government ratified CEDAW (Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) many years ago. In 2010, the Philippines finally had its national enabling law for CEDAW, the Magna Carta of Women. Gabriela and other women’s organisations fought for it for years.

However, under the Duterte regime’s macho-fascist stance, women’s and people’s movements are still met with state repression and vilification. Together with other Gabriela leaders, members and human rights defenders in the Philippines, I have been the target of attacks, harassment and trumped-up charges by the Philippine government.

Growing together with APWLD

In 2005, I first met APWLD members at the WTO Ministerial Conference protests in Hong Kong. I was part of the Philippine delegation as Gabriela Youth to several people’s activities, conferences parallel to the WTO Ministerial Meeting. It is somehow like a full circle because I’m now an OC member of WITCH, the trade programme of APWLD. But years ago, I was a member of GG regional OC.

Before the GG regional OC was formed in 2013, APWLD was involved in the regional movement and CSO processes concerning the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN). ASEAN had a lot on its plate. There were talks of building an ASEAN economic community, a free trade zone but there were also talks about strengthening the human rights mechanism. So APWLD, together with International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW-AP), co-coordinated and co-organised a conference of Southeast Asian women’s organisations in 2011. As a result of this conference, the Southeast Asian Women’s Caucus was formed. I got to be part of the regional coordinating body as the Philippines’ focal person.

In addition to ASEAN, the Pacific Island Forum, South Asian People’s Forum, etc. were also available to enhance the regional work of APWLD and analyse the emerging trade issues. WTO negotiations had begun collapsing, and global imperialist powers were looking into sub-regionalising or regionalising trade agreements. That’s why the APWLD GG regional programme was formed, and I started a particular journey of building a Southeast Asian women’s movement.

I remember in those three years with GG regional POC, we had five programme officers. The POC did not have a mechanism to keep growing due to the lack of a dedicated programme officer, and I believe the GG regional strategic plan fell flat. After merging the GG regional and the GG international in 2016, APWLD noted the need to take on a more active role in advocacy around trade and corporate hegemony. A new WITCH POC was initiated, and Gabriela also became part of the WITCH POC.

Trade works are all interconnected with how the neoliberal globalisation process impacts women’s lives. Sometimes, we feel and bear the disproportionate impacts of neoliberalism, but this is not obvious and not widely discussed. To tackle this challenge, the WITCH programme has to break down the problem of trade and tie it to core-economic relationships between and among nations, governments, corporations and people, as well as lay the groundwork for all other aspects of social interaction. It’s not easy. When you break it down, it always appears states are protecting corporate interests over people’s interests, and that’s why we try to assert our rights. Apart from that, our people are also supposed to be represented by governments. But we always have to remember the principle: when states talk about trade or corporations negotiate trade policies with states, it always connects to people’s lives and people’s interests. The public has to know. States have to be transparent to the people.

As a women’s movement, we have to pay attention to economic relations between and amongst states. Political power is used to protect economic interests, so it’s not only about trade but also redounds to war and militarism, and the WITCH programme compliments APWLD’s work.

There is a need for concerted, coordinated efforts across movements to engage players during negotiations at the regional and global levels. But the basic unit for these negotiations will always be the state. That’s why we need to strengthen national movements and national level advocacy.

South Korean farmers, for example, had a strong campaign against the WTO. In the Philippines, the peasant movement, the health sector movement, among others, had active campaigns against the WTO. That’s why WTO finally broke down: struggles at the national level and amplified by regional networks and global movements finally broke down the negotiations.

Concerning the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), it was signed roughly in November 2020. The pandemic and the global recession are push factors for that. National-level campaigns haven’t been so strong. States learned from the WTO experience, and they became much more secretive. So we need to know what has changed and what tactics and strategies we should take.

Trade and economic crises have always been at the core of Gabriela‘s work. But it is through APWLD that we can, for example, engage the RCEP and WTO, build and enhance our knowledge of trade agreements and platforms, and the status of negotiations of particular trade agreements, etc. As a national organisation, Gabriela is able to reassess and analyse the situation and configure new and complementary ways of organising women amid this pandemic. However, APWLD presents a global perspective on how women around the world are affected by this pandemic.

In solidarity with Filipino WHRDs

We have seen even worse situations since Duterte came to power, where some of our colleagues and friends were arrested on trumped-up charges, were killed extrajudicially and disappeared.

The human rights situation is getting worse. So we are very thankful and appreciative of the work that organisations like APWLD have done for the Philippine movement, especially with the Philippines’ human rights defenders. APWLD has consistently been one of the regional or global organisations that have been quick to issue solidarity statements, do solidarity actions whenever there are cases of political harassment or a threat to the lives and security of human rights defenders in the Philippines.

For example, when there was a mass arrest of 20 LGBTQ+ advocates/Gabriela members in June 2020, we were very thankful that APWLD, on the same day of the arrest, was able to hold a solidarity action, issue statements and alert our membership, even during this challenging time of COVID-19. We need to update constantly and make the international society know: how easy it is for our government to stifle us.

Involvement with APWLD’s governance and ways moving forward

My involvement with ReC and P&M is an involvement that Gabriela has had with APWLD. Gabriela has strategic plans to contribute experiences like critical analysis, strategy and tactics from the Philippine women’s movement to movement-building in the region and globally. For example, Gabriela is also part of the global One Billion Rising movement, the International Women’s Alliance and the Asian Rural Women’s Coalition, etc.

There is no other women’s organisation in Asia and the Pacific that can approximate the size and reach of APWLD. As a member of APWLD, we are working with the biggest and strongest regional women’s organisation. There are several points on APWLD’s analysis and membership.

One, APWLD has a progressive framework and analysis, which is encapsulated by GFMP analysis. But globalisation, fundamentalisms, militarism and patriarchy are not static concepts and situations. So there’s always a need to reassess, re-evaluate and re-analyse situations. For example, how does China figure as a growing superpower in competing with the US and Europe? How do we view that? We try to analyse China’s role and try to analyse the growing and changing situation, especially in the region.

Second, I also have been saying that we have to recognise that APWLD’s strength lies in its membership. It’s good that we have a growing secretariat, staff from across the region who have their own experiences, insights and expertise to share with the organisation. But we shouldn’t forget that our core strength lies in our membership. No other women’s regional organisation is like APWLD in that sense. And I think we have to look into how to draw more participation and draw in the breadth of experience and expertise of our members from various national organisations across the region into the work of APWLD.

There is a limitation to the Programme Organising Committee structure because we have a limited number of members who can be part of OCs. But we can always look into new forms of engaging and evolving our membership because that’s our core treasure as a regional organisation.

Besides, it’s always a challenge for feminist movements to tap into youth. Young feminists have a significant presence online, and APWLD needs to recognise that and build an online strategy to reach them. FPAR is trying to tap into young feminist researchers. However, I don’t think that is enough, so I suggest making online communication more engaging for the youth and having constant consciousness to engage youth participation in regional and national activities.

Finally, the hybrid model will impact APWLD because the secretariat would be located across the region. But I think our strength is that we recruited diverse staff from various countries into the secretariat. It will be a challenging period for staff on how to work together in this situation. However, this could be an opportunity for APWLD to better ground our work when the secretariat has staff in national locations where we have a diverse membership of grassroots women.

Name: Asel Dunganaeva

Organisation: Rural Women’s Association ‘Alga’

Country/Subregion: Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia

Engagement with APWLD

Programme Organising Committee (POC) member: Climate Justice (CJ) 2013-2017; Migration 2021- present
Programme partner: Breaking out of Marginalisation Feminist Participatory Action Research (BOOM FPAR) mentor & trainer; Feminist Law & Practice (FLP) Feminist Legal Training and Practice (FLTP) participant & trainer

Born in a traditional Muslim family in rural Kyrgyzstan, Asel Dunganaeva was only allowed to go to school as a small girl. At the age of 17, she protested when her parents arranged for her to marry a landlord’s son. When she was 20, Asel discovered Alga and became involved in its activities, then became involved in many other feminist activities through Alga and APWLD.

Despite her young age, Asel has rich experience in organising and building capacities of women’s groups and movements. As a trainer and consultant, she has helped hundreds of rural women develop business plans and access financial resources. Furthermore, she developed a training module on sustainable livelihoods, including leadership and women’s human rights.

APWLD interviewed Asel in January 2021 and below is her story.

Becoming a feminist and women human rights defender

I was born in a village and finished my education in Kyrgyz State Agrarian Academia which was very important to my parents as they wanted me to go back home and work in our small farm.

In my last year in Academia, I volunteered at the Association of Rural Women – Alga and was inspired by its work and women who work for Alga. At that time, I went to Alga from my university, which was 40 kilometres away. I wanted to achieve positive changes for society and my community in the area of the human rights situation of women .

In Kyrgyz language, Alga means go ahead or go forward. It was the second reason I joined the Alga Women’s Association. I wanted to be strong and protect myself, my friends and other girls who are kidnapped for marriage.

Kyrgyzstan is a patriarchal country that has a lot of gender stereotypes. My family arranged a marriage for me with a landlord’s son in my village when I was 17. As a young person with so many dreams, it was a difficult time for me to have to give up everything I had planned to continue my education, become independent and just enjoy my life. I shared my pain and fear with my grandmother and she supported me. Being the oldest and also wise, she held power in our family. She encouraged me to resist and told my parents that I should be allowed to realise my dreams.

In those days, there was no law against rape and kidnapping in my country, so young girls were very vulnerable to being kidnapped for marriage at any time.

I became aware that I could change my life and the lives of others through training and workshops, involving women in the movement, when I was 21 years old. Sooner, I became a trainer and provided peer-to-peer training among young girls in my community. Then, I started to work as the assistant of leadership programmes and became a programme coordinator.

Growing together with APWLD

My first contact with APWLD was at a workshop in Chennai, India, in 2006. That was my first international training in which I learned about feminism and women’s struggle for rights.

Before the workshop, I thought we lived in a world wherein most countries’ struggle was over, and our previous generations had achieved equality. Our mothers and grandmothers had struggles, but my generation’s lives were not so bad.

However, when I met women from different countries in Chennai, I realised that women’s human rights violations happened globally. Thus, we should enhance our ability to face new threats and challenges according to our time, perspective and reality. I realised that APWLD supported women in the struggle for rights in many countries, and I was impressed by women’s resistance and the solidarity achieved among people from Asia and the Pacific.

After that, I applied FLTP training and FPAR to deepen my knowledge of promoting women’s rights and find new tools for my work. APWLD strengthened my knowledge on international conventions such as CEDAW and other UN mechanisms and instruments, which I carried back to my community. For instance, FLTP training helped me develop and enhance my knowledge, perspective and understanding of international law, national law and our customs or traditional laws, which helped me understand the system and how we could fight over this system.

FPAR was a new approach for me – co-researchers in this journey were my community members, and it is also an approach to voice and visible women.

Through FPAR, we organised advocacy actions collectively to promote land rights for migrant women, mobilised women living with HIV/AIDs, and empowered women affected by climate change in practical ways. Women started making plans for their future. They demanded climate justice and saw solidarity as a source of hope, power and motivation for change within their communities and their own lives.

Fostering feminist movement and solidarity

During FPAR and FLTP training, I’ve met the best teachers like Judy Taguiwalo, Honey Tan and Ivy Josiah from this region. They have provided me with knowledge, methods and support. Also, I had solidarity visits or meetings with women’s organisations in other countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand to learn how they use FLTP or FPAR in their communities. I brought their experiences to my community to show women that change is possible; women could change their realities and even the law.

During an FPAR in Kyrgyzstan where I was a mentor for migrants and women’s organisations, we organised landless women, ex-refugees, poor women living in rural areas from Tajikistan and other parts of Kyrgyzstan to apply their experience working on land rights and to defend themselves. They consolidated support from each other, began to talk to the authorities, and initiated public hearings about land issues.

It was also a great improvement for the young researcher when she showed leadership in meetings with women and government officials. Thanks to FPAR, the community became more powerful, collected all information about settlement rights and created maps of power in their community. They used it to make a change in local legislation and received land successfully in 2020.

Alga is a grassroots organisation. We have made all the impacts based on the synergetic partnership with sister organisations in Kyrgyzstan and the women’s movement in Central Asia.

Women from our association have been involved for a long time in contributing to the national women’s movement to promote women’s rights and gender equality. As a result of lobbying by the women’s movement in Kyrgyzstan, we now have good achievements. For example, our Parliament amended the criminal court of Kyrgyzstan by adding Articles 154 and 155 on punishment for bride kidnapping. By then, we have been able to reduce discriminatory traditions and customs like bride kidnapping. Also, after an amendment to our legislation, we have 30 per cent of women in our Parliament now.

Involvement with APWLD’s governance and ways moving forward

As a representative of the rural women’s constituency, I was involved in the Climate Justice POC of APWLD to discuss the challenge of climate change and natural disasters. In my country, rural women suffered the most from the impacts of natural disasters. Women need to be informed and to have access to climate justice information so that rural communities can grow and have equal access to resources and decision making.

Climate Justice is a vital part of transformative development- Development Justice. There were five women in the CJ POC; all of us were representatives of different organisations from different countries. However, the common vision that we had was promoting women’s human rights, mitigating and adapting the climate crisis, and achieving climate justice in this region.

The CJ POC members were working on the grassroots and/or national levels so that we could learn from each other. For example, a member from Thailand had work experience in the resilience of Thai people to land issues, water issues and other issues connected to climate justice. In my organisation, we work with women and farmers whose lands were destroyed and every summer, there were strong droughts and women lost their harvests. It was my pain but also was my motivation to support women who work in the climate justice programme.

After meetings and forums with APWLD, we brought what we have learnt to our home countries and our communities. Such spaces provided by APWLD are good opportunities for feminists and organisations to increase their abilities. After that, we teach young feminists how to use APWLD’s frameworks and approaches. We teach them about legal rights protection and FPAR/FLTP methods, and help them understand our realities, especially the hidden causes of issues. In addition, in digital time, we need to solve digital gaps in accessing the technologies to support each other and strengthen our movement, and APWLD can do more on this.

Name: Hsiao-Chuan Hsia

Organisation: TransAsia Sisters Association, Taiwan (TASAT) / Graduate Institute for Social Transformation Studies, Shih Hsin University

Country/Subregion: Taiwan, East Asia

Engagement with APWLD:

Regional Council (ReC) member: 2012-2016
Programme Organising Committee (POC) member: Breaking out of Marginalisation (BOOM) 2009-2014; Labour & Migration 2015; Labour 2016; Migration 2017
Programme partner: BOOM Feminist Participatory Action Research (BOOM FPAR)

Hsiao-Chuan Hsia is a professor at the Graduate Institute for Social Transformation Studies, Shih Hsin University, and an activist scholar striving for the advancement of the marriage migrants’ movement.

She initiated the Chinese literacy programmes for marriage migrants in 1995, leading to the establishment of TransAsia Sisters Association, Taiwan (TASAT) in 2003, and co-founded the Alliance for the Human Rights Legislation for Immigrants and Migrants (AHRLIM), which has successfully campaigned for reforms of immigration policies and laws in Taiwan.

Hsia is also active in international organisations for immigrants and migrants, such as co-founding the Alliance of Marriage Migrants’ Organizations for Rights and Empowerment (AMMORE) and serving as the member of the international coordinating body of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) and APWLD.

APWLD interviewed Hsia in December 2020 and below is her story.

Fostering marriage migrants’ rights movement

In 1990, upon completing a BA in Sociology at the National Taiwan University, I moved to the United States to pursue advanced degrees, eventually graduating with a PhD in Sociology from the University of Florida in 1997.

At the centre of my academic interests and activism lies marriage migration, which is another significant form of forced migration whereby women from poorer countries migrate to richer countries through cross-border marriages. Inspired by my field research on marriage migration from Southeast Asia, I started the Chinese literacy programme for marriage migrants in 1995 to not only tackle the issue of isolation from the mainstream society facing marriage migrants, but also create a space for them to share their thoughts, discuss their issues and most importantly, form a network of their own, which would hopefully lead to the collective action.

After becoming literate in Chinese, our marriage migrant students went on to promote their cultures across Taiwan, talk about issues surrounding their community, and initiate campaigns for migrants’ rights at regional, national and even international levels. After eight years, the programme developed into a national organisation: TransAsia Sisters Association, Taiwan (TASAT). Recognising the importance of change at the legislative and policy level, in the same year, TASAT co-founded the Alliance for Human Rights Legislation for Immigrants and Migrants (AHRLIM). One of AHRLIM’s advocacy achievements is that, in 2007, the Amendments of Immigration Act was passed.

Under capitalist globalisation, marriage migration is a form of global forced migration. Thus, TASAT strives to forge solidarity with international, regional and national alliances and build cross-movement collaborations. To this end, TASAT co-founded the Alliance of Marriage Migrants’ Organizations for Rights and Empowerment (AMMORE) together with other regional and international organisations and works with other marginalised groups, such as indigenous people and homeless people.

Connecting to APWLD

I first became involved with APWLD when I visited members in the Philippines to find placement providers for my students. I ended up taking part in an APWLD event for indigenous people.

Between 1997 and 2006, there were other occasions where I was in contact with either APWLD or its members. The composition of APWLD’s members, mainly grassroots organisations from Asia and the Pacific, is interesting and appealing to me.

In 2009, APWLD invited me as a POC member for my work in raising the then highly marginalised marriage migration issue. One of the reasons I accepted APWLD’s offer was that we both recognised that marriage migrant issues were not just localised in Taiwan, but that they were pervasive and growing internationally, and we were on the same mission to make marriage migrants visible.

From 2012, I served as a member of the Regional Council, the highest decision-making body of APWLD for nearly 5 years. The initial motive for my joining the ReC was that I saw it as a learning opportunity—learning APWLD’s operation style through internal and external meetings and reading the reports. One example of my learning experience was that I was impressed with the rigour with which APWLD conducted meetings. I also find the workshop with which APWLD members locate and analyse 5-year strategic planning very effective. I brought the experience back to Taiwan for TASAT.

In my experience, the top obstacle to forging international solidarity through APWLD is that grassroots organisations are focused on their domestic work and often can’t spare much time to form the needed international and regional coalition. To me, one of APWLD’s most impressive characteristics is that it is by and for grassroots and at the same time, it forges global vision and global cooperation.

The two features should be coordinated to go together. To address the difficulty, I have suggested a solution to APWLD: a seasoned and designated programme officer that could efficiently coordinate international multi-organisational cooperation and execute members’ discussion and resolutions.

What APWLD can do for the feminist movement in Taiwan

I have been having a deep sense of crisis in recent years, this is because first of all, I believe that waging war will likely be adopted by capitalist regimes as a ‘solution’ for their internal issues that are innate to capitalism; secondly, in recent years especially, I have seen the rise of militarism in Taiwan in the form of the quasi-war rhetoric, as a result, activists are being suppressed from their activism because the rhetoric dictates that in the face of war, everyone should set their causes aside and join forces to be ready for the enemy. Given the current political environment in Taiwan, I especially value the importance of APWLD’s GFMP analysis.

At present, Taiwan’s feminist movement mainly focuses on identity politics and orients towards liberalism. Organisations in Taiwan want to connect to APWLD but not only for solidarity. For example, they want to join the UN, but Taiwan is not recognised as a country, so they cannot attend UN conferences. They want to take part in the UN through APWLD and gain more international attention and recognition. This relates to the Taiwan-China competition. I remember once Taiwan organisations attended CSW through APWLD. I was conflicted because I knew their motives. Usually, Taiwan’s CSOs have this unspoken or spoken demand: I take part in a movement to join the UN. Social issues and activism are of secondary importance.

Going back to promoting APWLD’s GFMP analytical framework, I think it is important that we keep doing that because it raises awareness. Only when awareness is raised will people know the significance of solidarity activities like Women’s Global Strike. Because you will see women as an important link in production, they possess the power to counter capital.

Only with analysis do people see why the global strike is useful, at least it has symbolic import. Without the framework, for example, in Taiwan, when we talk about anti-trade, we mean anti-trade with China and we are happy to sign trade agreements with other countries. Even the women’s movement organisations either think new trade deals are irrelevant to their work, or they are happy about it. I think, without an analysis of issues, at least in Taiwan’s movement development, everything will remain superficial.

In addition, it has been my long-standing belief that a subregional network, preferably one that connects members who share a common language, must be established. I have interpreted for grassroots participants at international meetings and am well aware of the dilemma facing organisations like APWLD: grassroots activists, which make up the majority of APWLD’s membership, by definition are unlikely to have a good command of English that is required to participate and comprehend international meetings and training.

While hiring interpreters might to some degree alleviate the problem, other issues, such as the added budget for interpreters that grassroots organisations may not be able to afford, emerge. I, with the uttermost enthusiasm, call for the establishment of such networks. Currently, I am on the APWLD committee for the East Asian subregional network and hope the new five-year strategic planning could address this issue.

Cultivating the next generation

Again, our context is that Taiwan is being trapped in Taiwan-China nationalist politics. Anti-China has become the centre of any young activists’ career focus, and this even affects how they view the world. This is troublesome, because they may be well equipped in terms of skills, but they can be blind to the capitalist regimes because they get caught up in nationalist politics. They would think capitalism exists only in the past and has nothing to do with them because it doesn’t enter their vision. I think not just in the women’s movement but Taiwan’s overall development, training the younger generation will be hampered by nationalist politics. If it is not the biggest difficulty, it at least is the main one.

In Taiwan, participation is narrowly perceived as one person one vote/universal suffrage. They judge if a country is progressive by looking at if their government officials are democratically elected. This is a very one-sided judgement.

One result of such thinking is that not many want to be involved with the grassroots because it won’t help you get elected. Or they would instrumentalise the grassroots. They may appear to have been rooted in the grassroots movement, but they use the grassroots as a stepping stone and won’t stay for long. Or they’d soon feel frustrated because grassroots organisations need to deal with many trivial issues like grassroots people’s emotions and bread and butter. On the one hand, many young people don’t usually have the patience, on the other hand, temptations abound.

Even at my age, I am enticed by government positions. The worst part is that you will be enticed not with high pay, but with accomplishing your missions. You will be told that what you are doing is not making much progress, it is too slow, you are being a fool. Your mission will be completed if you move to the government. But in reality, individuals entering government will only be assimilated into the bureaucracy; only the power of a group of people has the potential to change the system.

Therefore, I believe that the training of trainers (TOT) model is important, and APWLD can do more to support it in Taiwan. We need to sow more than we need. We train 100 people, perhaps only 2 will retain. Don’t fall into the quick-fix trap. Don’t expect a speedy solution. An old Chinese saying goes, “ It takes ten years to grow trees but a hundred years to nurture people ”. This is especially true for grassroots organisations to cultivate next generations.