APMM at the Beijing+30 Regional Review: Cultivating the space for migrant women in Asia Pacific and their calls for gender equality and justice

APMM partners at the Beijing+30 Ministerial Conference in Bangkok, Thailand

Last November 16-21, a series of meetings were held as part of the Beijing+30 Regional Review Process in Bangkok, Thailand. The 30th year of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) reveals the continuing hardships that women and gender-diverse people face in the Asia Pacific region. Despite commitments made back in 1995, progress towards gender equality and justice remains elusive and now, is even more difficult to achieve due to worsening socioeconomic and political crises. 

This year, APMM together with other women’s organisations in the civil society steering committee for the Beijing+30 Asia Pacific review process took part in several activities to forward issues and demands of women and gender-diverse peoples in the region. APMM partners – Kafin Migrant Center (Japan), Mission for Migrant Workers (Hong Kong), GABRIELA Philippines, First Union (Australia), and KARAMAY (Thailand) – also participated to amplify specific issues of migrant women and their demands for equal treatment, protection, and an end to structural violence and exploitation.

With the conclusion of the regional review, it is hoped that the language of women and migration will be further magnified in future processes that will bring supposed government commitments to fruition in line with BPfA and other rights-based frameworks that uphold women’s rights.

Cultivating solidarity at the Young Feminist Forum and the CSO Forum

The Young Feminist Forum and the CSO Forum, held from 16 to 19 November, brought together more than 500 CSOs and women’s organisations in total to consolidate issues and unite under common demands of women and gender-diverse peoples in the Asia Pacific. 

In both forums, APMM and partners contributed in different breakout sessions linking broader issues of gender inequality and injustice to the plights of migrant women. Sub-regional caucuses during the CSO Forum were particularly effective in giving space for migrant advocates to forward issues confronted by migrant women and voice out the needed remedies to address these. 

Migrant advocates doubled down on the risks posed by forced migration under a neoliberal system wherein women have to face the thrust of discriminatory policies in social protection and in economic opportunities. They shared, for instance, how marriage migrant women are unable to access basic social services and therefore, driving many to enter marriages that turn abusive eventually. The lack of jobs back home also points to forced migration in which marginalised communities are driven to find ‘better’ opportunities abroad while available resources in developing countries continue to be funnelled in the hands of a few local and global elites.  

Furthermore, conversations around the dearth in meaningful participation of migrant women in policy spaces, from the national to the regional and global level were also highlighted. This reflects the low regard for the narratives of migrant women who equally share the burden of multiple crises in the global South.

The migration perspectives shared during the sub-regional caucuses of the CSO Forum and the Young Feminist Forum spotlighted the importance of engaging issues that migrant women face in the context of neoliberal globalisation and the struggle for gender equality. Fruitfully, points on migration were able to figure into a number of CSO statements presented during the Ministerial Conference.

Cultivating power at the Ministerial Conference

At the Ministerial Conference last 19 to 21 November, CSOs and women’s organisations were met with the reality that government commitments to the BPfA persist to be mere lip service. Aside from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), no other government and UN agency gave attention to women and migration matters.

CSO statements from sub-regions and across different thematic areas were shared to the floor, including a number of highlights on labour migration. Johannie Tong from the Mission for Migrant Workers (MFMW) in Hong Kong delivered an intervention on the economic precarities faced by women and gender-diverse peoples in East Asia. She especially dove into the hardships that migrant women workers face in destination countries as they are left to fill in gaps in care work while being treated as cheap labour. The imposition of the neoliberal framework followed by East Asian economies allows for such injustice to thrive and is also the primary reason why many migrant women still remain outside the ambit of labour and social protections despite years spent calling for fair treatment in the workplace and in communities.

Clarice Canonizado of APMM also delivered a speech during the launch of the CSO Report of the Beijing+30 Asia Pacific civil society steering committee. She mainly talked about gender-affirmative economic justice, decent work, and social protection, including issues of migrant women who are often left at the sidelines in such discourses. 

APMM’s side-event on social protection during the Ministerial Conference was a rare and critical moment to put the narratives and demands of migrant women at the forefront of the BPfA since its creation. With speakers, Nansiri Iamsuk (UN WOMEN), Padma Raman (Office for Women, Australia), and Clarice Palce (GABRIELA Philippines), challenges, good practices, and demands from grassroots migrants were exemplified. Clarice emphasised the role of neoliberal globalisation in reinforcing abuse, stigmatisation, and rights violations against migrant women. Padma adds to the conversation by sharing about particular developments in Australia where migrant women are often subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace and are often placed in low-paying, informal jobs. In addition, Nansiri underscored the glaring gaps in social protection for migrant women, especially those working in care and domestic sectors. 

Speakers during APMM’s side-event on social protection for migrant women. L-R: Nansiri Iamsuk (UN WOMEN), Padma Raman (Office for Women, Australia), Clarice Palce (GABRIELA Philippines), Clarice Canonizado (APMM)

Above adversities, some good practices are being advanced by women’s organisations and governments. Clarice reflected on the collective and mutual support that migrant women give to each other through crisis centers, where movement-building and solidarity initiatives are strongly fostered. Furthermore, migrants’ campaigns for more inclusive labour agreements continue to roll out despite push-backs and attacks on defenders and advocates. Padma also shared about a few reforms in the case of Australia, such as the Sex Discrimination Act, which addresses commitments to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

In relation to the BPfA, governments and the UN are challenged to ramp up their efforts in serving migrant women across the region. There has to be gender-responsive protection for migrant women and their rights, migrant-friendly services, unconditional social protection regardless of immigration status, and coordinated efforts with migrant women themselves who have long been shouldering consequences of ineffective policies and mechanisms. Ultimately, as shared by Clarice, forced migration has to end and ample economic opportunities back home must be created so that no more women are compelled to leave their families.

At the end of the side-event, APMM also distributed a CSO statement which stresses on the current structural obstacles confronted by migrant women as well as strong demands for transformations in economic and social protection frameworks in the Asia Pacific.

Cultivating resistance

There is definitely more work to be done by the UN and member states in terms of keeping their commitments to meaningfully support and protect women and gender-diverse people in the region. Neoliberal policies continue to marginalise women from different sectors, including migrant women. The maximisation of cheap labour by wealthy countries is one of the primary drivers of gender inequality and human rights violations faced by many. Due to this, CSOs and grassroots migrants organisations have yet to see improvements and inclusion in policy-making and implementation of supposed gender-sensitive frameworks that truly respond to the overlapping issues faced by migrant women in Asia Pacific.

Beyond the walls of the Beijing+30 review process, APMM, together with grassroots migrants and their organisations, continue to work on the ground to consolidate issues and calls of migrant women for social justice. The continuing work on the BPfA must be two-pronged – to assert migrant women voices in official policy spaces, such as in the upcoming CSW69 in 2025, and to build solidarity and collective power with grassroots communities by increasing each other’s capacities and giving support to various campaigns.

With the nearing end of the year, gender equality is not merely relegated to the pages of BPfA documents. Persistent resistance against neoliberal dictates that reinforce forced migration must be enabled in all fronts, from the UN to the workplaces, to truly accelerate gender equality across all geographies and sectors of society.