At the heart of our discussions on climate justice lies a truth often overshadowed by broader environmental debates: the ongoing tragedy in Gaza. Fueled by colonialism and a fossil fuel system that perpetuates violence, the genocide happening right now in Gaza underscores the inextricable link between climate justice, gender justice, and the quest for peace. This crisis is not separate but deeply intertwined with the environmental challenges we face globally. The year 2021 took a significant environmental and financial toll on Malaysia, with losses amounting to $1.5 billion due to devastating ..read more

Dear IWRAW-AP community, Over the past two years, IWRAW-AP has been through several processes as part of our commitment to growth and change. During this period, we have drawn on our rich legacy and contribution to a groundswell of women’s human rights activism regionally and globally. At the end of 2022, we completed an organisational review process that allowed us to assess our internal culture, structure, functions and our work externally to draw lessons for a renewed strategy for our next chapter. In 2023, we initiated a Change Project to take forward some of the recommendations from this ..read more

Dear colleagues in IWRAW AP’s wider circle of partners, friends, and supporters, You would have been alerted in different ways that I am transitioning out of IWRAW AP as its executive director and that Priti Darooka will take up the position in October. The social media posts have made some very positive statements about IWRAW AP’s journey over the seven years of my tenure, and I felt really proud and validated! However, I thought that I should share my own perspectives and thank everyone who made that incredible journey possible. Because the achievements are neither mine nor IWRAW AP’s alone ..read more

  The Right to Development (R2D) emerged in the 1970s as the hallmark of post-colonial nations’ quest for a fairer economic order. Since its embodiment in the 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development, and despite the long-lived, tumultuous political debate that its recognition provoked between Global North and South countries1, developing nations and human rights advocates managed to keep the R2D process alive, wielding it to voice hopes and articulate demands for a truly just economic system that includes everyone and protects our planet. Two recent turning points have revamped its p ..read more

This blog post is adapted from an article co-authored by IWRAW Asia Pacific’s Environmental Justice Programme Officer, Marisa Hutchinson, and Fellow, Jhannel Tomlinson. The article was originally published on Open Global Rights.   “For many Global South activists and communities, whose realities are already plagued by climate variability and change, the pledges and actions agreed upon at COP26 were too late, inadequate, and exclusive. “   Depending on who you ask, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP26 climate conference which took place in Glasgow ..read more

  “The better we understand how identities and power work together from one context to another, the less likely our movements for change are to fracture.” – Kimberle W. Crenshaw   In the time following its introduction, the theory of intersectionality has become a fundamental aspect of a wide range of feminist and queer scholarship in academia, and in recent years has spilt into public and media discourse. A term and theory coined by Black feminist and critical race scholar Kimberle Crenshaw, intersectionality is an analysis of how different systems of domination operate and intera ..read more

The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic have been supplemented by the unmanageable impacts of extreme climate events. These have included hurricanes, cyclones and volcanic eruptions, many resulting in excessive flooding, exhaustive ashfall and in some cases deaths, severely affecting the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable communities, especially in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and low-income countries in the Global South. Meanwhile, the pandemic has imposed prolonged lockdowns, restricted travel, increased military presence and further exacerbated issues of food security and access t ..read more

CEDAW General Recommendation 38 on trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration was adopted in November 2020. It recognises that ‘globally dominant economic policies are the cause behind large-scale economic inequality between States and individuals that manifests as labour exploitation’. It also highlights that macroeconomic factors produce the conditions of economic injustice that disproportionately impact women. Despite the initial promise of this structural analysis, subsequent sections deviate to the familiar and dangerous tropes of the anti-trafficking world: discour ..read more

For the first time since the pandemic began, the CEDAW Committee met with the opportunity for in-person participation of both state delegates and NGOs. #CEDAW82 took place from 13 June to 1 July 2022 at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The Committee carried out constructive dialogues with eight states: Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Portugal, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. While CSOs do not take part in the formal state dialogue, they are given the opportunity to both present a public oral statement and privately brief the CEDAW Committee on key issues in wom ..read more

Like many other women’s issues in Malaysia, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Malaysian women is disregarded at varying levels. With little to no discourse on this matter, challenges faced by women with ADHD are swept under the rug. This blog post analyses the exclusion of women with ADHD in Malaysia in three parts. It explores the accessibility of formal diagnosis, followed by the recognition of ADHD as a disability in Malaysia, and the implications of Malaysia’s reservations on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the People with Disabilities ..read more