Women’s Rights on the Line : How women defend rights to the commons and at the workplace in Asia amidst neoliberalism and corporate capture
Launch of the Women Interrogating Trade and Corporate Hegemony (WITCH)
Regional Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) Analysis Report
The Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development (APWLD) and its partners from Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines conducted a Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) between 2023 – 2024, focusing on the theme of ‘Trade and Economic Justice from the Ground-Up’. This report summarises the findings from the four organisations that participated in the FPAR: Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay, Philippines), Sentral Gerakan Buruh Nasional (SGBN, Indonesia), Sahita Institute (HINTS, Indonesia) and Research Centre for Gender, Family, and Environment in Development (CGFED, Vietnam). The findings in this report highlight how neoliberal policies that flexibilise labour and privatise resources impact urban poor women and women workers, as well as their collective resistance and struggles for Development Justice.
Context
Global capitalism’s crisis is deepening, characterised by the persistent financial instability, disrupted supply chains and rivalries between developed countries for investment opportunities, market control and political influence. As the crisis deepens, promoters of neoliberalism continue to find new avenues to enable corporations to extract super profits.
Within Asia and the Pacific, the impacts of mega-regional trade agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and regional economic frameworks such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), continue to unfold.
Meanwhile, governments in the region continue to implement privatisation, liberalisation and deregulation policies that promise to attract foreign investments and access to foreign markets, at the behest of international financial institutions such as the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The World Trade Organisation, in particular, stands at a critical crossroads ahead of the 14th Ministerial Conference taking place from 26-29 March 2026 in Cameroon, as it faces a crisis of relevance amid fragmented reform efforts and deepening tensions between developed and developing countries. While the reforms should be focusing on leveling the playing field for developing countries, ongoing debates focus on process and procedural reforms, such as those concerning the organisation’s dispute settlement and consensus-based decision making, as well as updating rules on issues such as digital trade and subsidies.
We, as feminists of the Global South, reject this reform agenda in its narrow technical scope. As reflected in this regional report, the challenges facing the WTO are deeply structural in nature. Since its founding in 1995, the WTO has reinforced historical inequalities in the global economy, privileging the interests of the Global North and transnational corporations, functioning as a key driver of neoliberal globalisation while constraining trade-driven development in the Global South.
APWLD affirms that corporate capture and the neoliberal trade system must be dismantled. The only way forward for trade justice and women’s human rights is structural change and communities at the centre.
