The Central Asia FPAR programme of Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) cordially announces the launch of its FPAR on Central Asia Women Migrants for the year 2022-2024 and will be working closely with five partner organisations from Central Asia throughout one and half year. The programme will continue to support grassroots women migrant groups to strengthen their collective power to challenge intersecting systemic challenges, discrimination and violence against women in internal and cross-border labour migration, struggles of women in accessing their rights to decent work, including rights at work and living wage, the right to full employment, social protection and social dialogue.
To advance the rights of women migrants in decent work, we believe that women migrants need to author their own stories and collect evidence of migrants’ rights violations. APWLD will equip the organisations with the tools to strengthen their capacity to document the evidence, build bargaining power, strategise the campaign and advocacy work, and movement architecture to demand structural changes.
Below is the profile of five organisations that have been selected as partners:
Ravnye Prava, Kyrgyzstan, protects the rights of women internal and external migrants in the new settlements in Chuy province, Kyrgyzstan. In the FPAR, the organisation will focus on documenting the challenges of internal women migrants in accessing their rights to decent work and harassment of internal women migrants at workplaces. Through FPAR, the organisation aims to build the capacity of women migrants to participate in decision-making processes on the human rights of women migrants at the local and national levels and create a movement of women migrants capable of promoting the protection of the rights of women migrants at the local, national and international levels. The organisation believes that a solid feminist movement is an essential tool in implementing advocacy campaigns and lobbying legislation, as well as in demanding accountability from the government.
Human Rights Advocacy Centre, Kyrgyzstan is an association of non-governmental organisations which focuses on protecting the rights of women and girls, migrants, youth, minorities and vulnerable marginal groups of citizens in the country and abroad. Through the FPAR, the organisation aims to explore and document issues of internal migrant women concerning access to public services, labour rights, and harassment and violence against women migrants in the communities. At the same time, the organisation works on promoting migrant women’s and girls’ rights at all levels and in all spheres of life through building skills of migrant women and girls in protecting their rights and freedoms in civil, administrative and criminal proceedings, self-realisation and enhancing socio-political role/activity, and building a sustainable feminist network of migrants’ rights activists in local communities.
Ghamkhori, Tajikistan, is a public organisation working in the remote Khatlon province to prevent violence against women, human trafficking, labour migrants and their family members’ rights violations. In the FPAR, the organisation will focus on identifying and documenting the challenges of women labour migrants in accessing their rights to decent work and public services in Tajikistan. In addition, the organisation plans to carry out FPAR in remote areas where women migrants’ rights are often violated and where migrant women do not have access to information and protection of their rights. Their FPAR also aims to build the capacity of women migrants on women’s and migrants’ rights and strengthen the involvement of women migrant workers in policy-level dialogue at the local and national levels and development of effective mechanisms for the protection of women migrants’ rights through organising local women migrants to autonomous groups of migrants’ rights activists.
Dunyoi Mukhabbat, Tajikistan, is a grassroots-level women-led public organisation which focuses on educating, working with and mobilising rural unemployed and migrant women and youth in the Khamadoni district of Tajikistan to protect their rights. In relation to the FPAR, the organisation, jointly with the community of women migrants in the remote mountainous rural area of Khamadoni, will investigate and document the situation and the challenges faced by women migrants after the labour migration to identify gaps in the implementation of migration law and policies. Their main FPAR objective is to assess and build the strategic leadership capacity of migrant women to effectively participate in identifying and responding to the violations of their economic rights and to lead and promote policy-level changes.
Women of Agriculture Association, Ferghana Branch, Uzbekistan, is a women-led public organisation working on the protection of rural women in agriculture and women migrants’ rights and empowerment of rural women and girls to participate in the decision and policy-making process at the local and national levels, to strengthen the position and role of women, and ensure gender equality. In the FPAR, the organisation will document all injustices and rights violations of irregular women migrants in all migration cycles, including their families. In addition, the organisation aims to use FPAR findings to promote policy changes at local, national and subregional decision-making processes to strengthen migrant women’s rights protection and empower women migrants to organise a regional migrant women’s movement in the Fergana region. Furthermore, the organisation will work with women migrants in rural areas in the border areas of the Ferghana province of Uzbekistan.
