Asia-Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting on the Seventieth Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 70): “Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, including by promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices, and addressing structural barriers”
The Asia-Pacific preparatory meeting will be jointly convened by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Bangkok Regional Hub, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) East Asia and Pacific Regional Office.
The objective of the regional preparatory meeting is to provide an interactive forum for both state and non-state actors from relevant institutions (gender equality and women’s empowerment, and Justice) from ESCAP member States and key stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific to examine ways to accelerate progress on key Human Rights instruments and frameworks, including the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (in particular following the recent commemorations of Beijing+30), the 25th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - through the centering of access to justice as critical to the dignity, freedom, voice, and agency of women and girls.
The regional preparatory meeting will provide an opportunity to take stock of key trends, needs, gaps in policy responses, and good practices, as well as to consider possible areas for joint interventions (policy, programmatic or otherwise), to address the institutional gaps across legal systems and discriminatory laws, policies, and practices that impede women’s and girls’ access to justice. Specifically, this preparatory meeting will facilitate the exchange of knowledge and ideas among state and non-state actors in order to:
- Foster a comprehensive understanding of the systemic legal, social, and institutional barriers limiting women’s and girls’ access to justice, including discriminatory laws, policies, and practices
- Explore legal and institutional reforms designed to realize the rights of all women and girls, close legal gaps, and strengthen gender-responsive judicial and alternative justice mechanisms.
- Strengthen legal literacy among women and girls to ensure they are aware of their rights, understand available remedies, and are empowered to engage effectively with justice systems.
- Examine how innovations in digital justice, community-led approaches, and survivor-centered responses to Gender-based violence (GBV) can be leveraged to expand access to justice and address emerging challenges with a gender perspective.
- Promote women’s leadership in the judiciary, to strengthen justice systems, enhance gender-responsive decision-making, and ensure that legal institutions effectively respond to the rights and needs of women and girls.
- Enhance the availability of comprehensive, disaggregated data and research to inform efforts in advancing gender equality within justice systems, ensure justice systems are gender responsive and to strengthen safeguards and accountability for gendered harms.
The outcome of the Asia-Pacific regional preparatory meeting for CSW70 will be a set of suggested actions for accelerated progress, in line with the Priority Theme for CSW70. The suggested actions will feed into CSW70 and can inform membership contributions to the Agreed Conclusions.