Steps towards Effectiveness and Accountability in terms of CEDAW

As I am one of the Cambodian youths, who always long to see the Cambodian government fully capable of managing the country with more effectiveness and accountability, I would like to use what I have as a university student to express my ideas as a recommendation as to what I think are necessary and should be done in order to build a stronger and more effective Cambodian government. And as being one of Gender Studies/Women Studies students, my recommendation will be most particularly made in terms of CEDAW—a convention on women made by the United Nation (UN).

I. CEDAW

        CEDAW is short for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It is “an international standard-setting instrument” that was adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 1979, came into force in 1982, and was ratified by Cambodia in 1992. (UNIFEM.) The governments of CEDAW-adopting countries have to practice and follow the established set of rules without reservation so as to avoid any action that may represent disadvantages towards women. This convention works for women to terminate all kinds of discrimination and prejudice against them and aims to seek for equalities between males and females in all aspects, from simple household work to politics and high decision-making power. In short, the main purpose of CEDAW is to allow all women to enjoy lives with full rights and freedom as men do.

II. Problem Statement

        According to what can be observed from current Cambodian society, as well as what is agreed by the UN and shown in Point 35 of the Concluding Comments of CEDAW: Cambodia (2006), which was issued by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the majority of women from ethnic minority groups and disabled women are facing multiple forms of discrimination with regard to access to education, employment, and healthcare.

        Indeed, in addition to being inferior to their husbands or other males in their societies, women of ethnic minority groups, mainly in the eastern part of the country, such as in Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri, have been living without enough care from the government and has been discriminated against by many people of the majority group mainly because of the race they were born into. They are seen as the lower-class people, whose lives do not figure in most Cambodian’s mind. They are neglected. For example, Phnorng women do not have full access to proper health treatments when they are sick, either because there is no registered clinic or standard hospital in the area where they live or because they do not have money to pay for those treatments. In other cases, domestic violence by their husbands may befall them because traditionally they are supposed to stay obedient and not to speak up for themselves, and this violence is likely to happen without necessary interference from authorities to stop. This may result from the fact that those women, as well as their husbands, are uneducated, and the local authorized people are not bothered to educate them and prevent the violence as they do towards the majority group, Khmer women or people.

        Anyway, the situation may be relatively bad for women with disability. Seeing that they cannot do certain things that normal people with good physical and emotional conditions can, they are seen as a burden—useless and unimportant—to others or to the society as a whole. Thanks to this stereotype, disabled women are ignored and thus do not receive what each woman in a society should get. Not only does this factor discourage those women from using their potentials to contribute to their own lives and to the society, but this also causes them to live miserably in depression, distress, and unhappiness.

III. My Recommendations

        To be more effective and accountable in term of this particular issue, I recommend that the Cambodian government give more attention to disabled women and women from ethnic groups. As mentioned by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in their concluding comments to Cambodia, the government should integrate attention to those groups of women into national policies, plans and programmes as well as to implement specific measures to eliminate discrimination against them.

1. Measures:

        Specific policies that protect the rights and freedom of women from ethnic minority groups and disabled women and promote equalities for them as compared to other groups of people should be fully established. The rules may say, “Do not discriminate against women on basis of health, race, or appearance.” “Disabled women and minor-ethnic group women have the same rights to receiving proper healthcare as everyone else.” Or, “People should be recruited for jobs regardless of the fact that they are female or disabled.” Such rules can be made into force within the government policies in all fields from education to economic activities.

        After rules and regulations have been finished, they have to be taken into real actions. Therefore, various plans and programmes in terms of those established policies needs to be made and carried out. First plan to focus on is education, which is believed to be the most important assets of all nations in the world. Education here refers to spreading the knowledge and breeding it into all Cambodians to realize how vulnerable those groups of women has been in most Cambodian societies, how they should be treated, and that any form of discrimination against them is morally wrong. This can be done in many ways.

        First of all, it should be done through the educational system of Cambodia. Subjects about women studies/gender studies should be included in the school curriculums. If possible, this should start early in primary school and continue until high school. Children need to be taught gradually to have a mindset of seeing everyone as equal human beings, which is bound to stay with them for the rest of their lives. Further, to make it even more effective, gender studies/women studies should be demanded as one of the university foundation-year subjects, just as practiced in the Pannasastra University of Cambodia. Second, the education could be achieved via the media: television, radio, newspaper, magazines and so on. In this regard, interesting spots or short movies about those groups of people’s rights should be created and then broadcast through TV or radio, which are watched or listened by thousands of people. Then, necessary information and knowledge can be spread fast and conveniently. Third, education may also work well if with various campaigns, to which public officials, students, or other volunteers can help contribute with respect to energy, time, or maybe some possible donations. The participating people, for example, can together design schemes to find funds and then travel together to remote and poor areas of the country to directly educate people, both children and adults, about the issues. With this measure, uneducated, or not-well-educated people, can get some ideas about what is right and what is wrong, what is fair and what is not fair, etc. In fact, this kind of campaign usually is small and can be done by an ordinary group of people, not necessarily by the government, but it would produce more satisfying outcomes if the government would join or just encourage and support because it is probable that more people, including me, will willingly volunteer to take part so that the process can be done faster and more effectively.

        Merely educating those groups of women—women from ethnic minority group and disabled women—to know about their human rights and what they deserve and teaching others to understand them is not sufficient. The government had better allow those rights to become reality by providing them with what they can hardly manage to acquire. For women of an ethnic group in a remote area very far from the civilized world, it is almost impossible that they get full advantage of what the government provides for the general public. For example, the hospital in town is very well equipped and the policies say that everybody, no matter if they are Phnorng or Khmer, can get health service there for free. Unfortunately, the Phnorng, who live 100 or 200 km away, cannot access the hospital as easily as the local people. Not only are they mostly poorer than the locals, but they also live farther away. Thus, it is only fair that something in favor of them is done; for instance, another hospital is built near where the Phnorng live. In short, what is being explained here is to say that the government should not ignore the development of other areas besides ones in cities or towns at all. More clinics should be built. More schools are also needed to provide those women with knowledge so that they can have a better job opportunity, obtain a better living standard, and live a better life. Additionally, the government should encourage more investments in those remote areas in order to create more jobs. Although this is something very hard to accomplish for such a developing county as Cambodia, it would be advisable that at least something, rather than nothing, is being done. Efforts, no matter how big, need to be made even if the progress is uncomfortably slow.

        Also, for disabled women, I think they struggle the most when they go to apply for jobs and get rejected merely because they are partly disabled. Concerning this issue, besides educating, or perhaps putting some pressure on those employers, one thing that the government may do is to set up, for instance, organizations or enterprises where disabled people, particularly women, are taught particular professions and then given jobs for them to earn their living. This both contributes to the country’s economy, not wasting any labour force, and gives those women a normal life despite their disability. Moreover, to show those women that they are cared about and not neglected, which can be very emotionally important to them, it would be very ideal that the government build, for example, disabled parking, disabled toilets, disabled entrances, etc. in the public places and buildings.

2. Funds:

        The above recommended measures may require a lot of money to work out successfully, so where and how can the government get the needed amount of money? Actually, as Cambodia is a full member of the United Nations and is also one of the 180 member countries to adopt CEDAW, it is definitely possible to request for funds from UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women). Although the procedure may be complicated, as long as the schemes are well planned, organized, and convincing, I believe the UNIFEM will be more than happy to see something is being done for women and will certainly not hesitate to help. However, outside contributions alone are not adequate; the government and the Cambodians in general have to use their own money, time, energy, and willingness into the action, too.

IV. Conclusion

        In the name of a young Cambodian, what I think I can do is to recommend to the government that it make efforts to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women from ethnic minority groups, as well as disabled women, and those efforts, first, should include educating people of all ages and statuses not to discriminate, which can be done through the available media or through outdoor campaigns. Second, the government have to show that the welfare of those women are well taken into consideration by trying to develop where they live as much as in other places, creating jobs for them, and, for the disabled women, building facilities that can ease their lifestyle. Although these are just a small part of what can be done about our country now, I strongly believe that it is really worth trying and, if goals achieved, the Cambodian government will, without a shadow of a doubt, move one step closer to becoming an effective and accountable State party.

Reference:

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, UN. Concluding Comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Cambodia (2006).

UNIFEM, UN. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).