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ASIA PACIFIC FORUM on WOMEN, LAW and DEVELOPMENT

About APWLD

Empowering women to use law as an instrument of change and promoting women’s human rights in the Asia Pacific region.

Who We Are. APWLD is the region’s leading network of feminist organisations and women. Our 180 members represent groups of diverse women from 25 countries in the region. We have been active for nearly 25 years. APWLD has consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. We are an independent, non-government, non-profit organisation.

Work. APWLD empowers women in the region to use law as an instrument of change for equality, justice, peace and development. APWLD uses research, training, advocacy and activism to claim and strengthen women’s human rights as enshrined in UN international human rights instruments.

Beliefs. We believe that law can be transformative as well as repressive. We seek to dissect, engage with and transform laws, legal practices and the systems that shape and inform them.

We believe that the fusion of patriarchy with militarisation, fundamentalisms and neo-liberal economic globalisation is responsible for gross violations of women’s rights.

We believe that equality, development and the realisation of human rights can only happen when women, particularly marginalised women, are empowered to lead policy and legal debates and articulate solutions.

We believe that a transformative form of democratic leadership can bring about the structural changes required to claim and advance women’s rights.

Structure. Our diverse membership provides the strength and expertise that both drives and executes our programme activities. APWLD members come together every three years in a General Assembly. They appoint a Regional Council to govern APWLD and a smaller Programme and Management Committee to oversee operations. Our Secretariat in Chiangmai carries out day to day operations and provides for programme implementation as well as financial and technical support.

History. APWLD developed from dialogues among Asia Pacific women lawyers, social scientists and activists, which began at the 1985 Third World Forum on Women, held in Nairobi, Kenya. The women participating in the dialogues recognised that while law is used as an instrument of state control over resources, rights and even women’s bodies, it can also be used to help effect political and socio-economic changes in our societies.

Participants in these dialogues recognised that gaining the capacity to mobilise populations to understand the social, economic and political dimensions of women’s oppression and take collective action for change required a clear focus and strong organisation. In 1986, women-delegates from across Asia met in Tagaytay, Philippines to discuss the most pressing socio-legal issues facing women and to explore possible areas of collaborative action. The outcome of this meeting was the formation of APWLD, the first regional response to the challenges of Nairobi.

In 1986, women lawyers and other activists in the region formally launched APWLD and set up a secretariat in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Secretariat relocated to Chiangmai, Thailand in October 1997.

Members. APWLD is the region’s leading network of feminist organisations and women. Our 183 members represent groups of diverse women from 25 countries in the region. We have been active for nearly 25 years.

                                The Women of APWLD

OUR STRUCTURE

Our diverse membership provides the strength and expertise that both drives and executes our programme activities. APWLD members come together every three years in a General Assembly. They appoint a Regional Council to govern APWLD and a smaller Programme and Management Committee to oversee operations. Our Secretariat in Chiangmai carries out day to day operations and provides for programme implementation as well as financial and technical support.Programme and Management Committee.

Annual Reports

As APWLD approached nearly a quarter decade of work in Asia Pacific we took a close work at our strength as a regional network. It was obvious; our strength is in our membership – the organisations of grassroots women on the frontlines of the struggle for women’s human rights. In order to create a better network, we needed to support and fortify these frontlines. Similarly, we needed these strong voices to be represented in each of the levels of APWLD governance and action. 2009 has been a transformative year for APWLD. A restructuring of our governance and refocus of our programmes reflected the existing and emerging expertise of our membership. Renewal is never a sudden or simple process. It has however energized our work. The strength we gained early in 2009 is visible across our programme activities in themes of strengthened knowledge, strengthened voice, strengthened participation and a stronger institution at the centre of women’s human rights in Asia Pacific.