[The comments in this article are
solely the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of
the Royal Government of Cambodia]
By Sam Sotha
Today, March 8, countries around
the world celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD). The World is honoring and celebrating the
achievements of women. People celebrate the respect, appreciation and love
towards women and celebrate women's economic, political and social
achievements.
This year United Nations theme
for International Women's Day is "A promise is a promise: Time for action
to end violence against women," and declared the year's theme as The
Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum.
Today, Cambodia too is joining the world to celebrate the equal rights of women and mainstreaming gender.
We celebrate the achievements of women. We are joining the global momentum for
championing women's equality. For the
past several days officials and communities across the country have also
observed the achievements of Cambodian women and to commemorate the anniversary
of 102nd IWD. Cambodian
leaders are celebrating Cambodian women’s economic, political and social
achievements.
Here there is a real momentum. If
we look back to the era of general elections sponsored by the United Nations
and the formation of coalition government in 1993 in Cambodia, Cambodia has
moving from a man show head of secretariat of state for women affairs to the establishment
of the ministry of women’s affairs which led by a female minister. Today,
Cambodia has a female deputy prime minister and a number of female cabinet
ministers.
To promote gender equality and empower women is one of the ninth
global Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Cambodia. In the
legislative bodies there are significant increases of representatives of female
in the National Assembly who are holding 21% of the seats and 13% in the
Senate. Recently the National Assembly elected a female MP as its second vice
president, and some more female representatives have also been elected as
permanent committee chairwomen of both Houses.
At the local level, since the first commune election in 2002
until last year third elections there are solid evidences of gender
mainstreaming and equality, the percentages of women councilors have been
jumped up in 2002, 2007 and 2012 from 8.45% to 14.6% and to 17.78%
respectively.
Obviously the increase of women to participate in commune
level not only had gender equality is gaining its momentum but also citizens
had a voice in selecting their representatives who have the greatest impact on
their daily lives. Indeed and in principle, a real democracy is obtained from
people, where voters can freely express their opinions and select their favored
representative through democratic elections.
The increasing number of women running for commune council means that
more Cambodian women will be able to move into politics at the district and at
the provincial level as well. In fact, there is not a question of fixing the
quotas it is rather the questions of professionalism, good governance and
democracy.
In this regards let us mirror
ourselves to the evolution of women in politics in some Western countries where
the inclusion of women with the right to vote and to run the office. In UK, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland, to name
a few where women could not vote until 1928, 1946, 1946, 1948 and 1971
respectively. Likewise most states in the
US disfranchised women until 1919.
Since 1980 till 2000 the percentage
of American women who had been elected into the US Congress were still glimmering.
In 1990, 6.7% women were elected into the House of Representatives (HR) and 2%
into the Senate (2 women versus 98 men); and a decade later the representation
of women rose up to 13.3% in HR and 9% in the Senate. It took more than half of a century to
fostering the United States gender mainstreaming from 2% in 1943 to 13.3% in
2000.
In Cambodia, the Prime Minister
Samdech Hun Sen and the First Lady both have actively been playing their part
to promote gender mainstreaming and eliminating all forms of discrimination
against women.
To implement the
above mentioned national plans the Royal Government has established a council
called the Cambodian National Council for Women (CNCW) which is currently playing
a pivotal role, as a national mechanism to monitor and follow up on the
implementation of the international “Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).”
Last month, at the CNCW annual Review
Conference the Prime Minister has set fourteen points of recommendations
including but not limited to providing financial resources to concerned
ministries and institutions who are working on women issues; on legal
protection for rape victims and domestic
violence; education, vocational and employment programs; women and girls
marriage and adoption protections, trafficking and exploitation; health and
nutrition; supporting women leadership efforts at all level; last but not least
the implementation of CEDAW Convention including training and awareness
seminars for police, judges, court staff and civil servants to officials from
relevant ministries on the Convention along with dissemination through the
media for society at large.
Coupled with Prime Minister’s efforts,
the First Lady of Cambodia has her role too.
Beside her tenure and her responsibilities as President of Cambodian Red
Cross; providing humanitarian assistances to the vulnerable and disabled person
including women, girls and children; the First Lady has played a prominent
leadership role nationally and internationally promoting awareness and
assisting with morale value, social services, health and HIV to women, mother,
girls across the country, reducing maternal and newborn mortality. Due to her
tireless endeavor and leadership the First Lady of Cambodia has been awarded
and appointed to two most prominent positions: National Champion of the Asia-Pacific
Leadership Forum on HIV/AIDS and National Champion for the UN
Secretary-General’s Action Plan for Women’s and Children’s Health.
Therefore, local as well as
foreign critics of the government vis a vis the issue of women’s equal rights,
should not continue to turn their blind eyes towards such commendable
achievements of the Royal Government and of the society at a very short period
of times as compared to some advanced Western countries which took hundreds of
years to tackle this issue, and still they are not perfect as they feel.