Partners’ Meeting held in Bangkok on Gender and Labour Rights (Oct 2015)

Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC), recently concluded a Partners Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. The event, held between 26-28 October 2015, brought together 55 participants from 42 organisations from 13 countries across Asia.

 

 

 

 

The participants, which included women worker leaders, activists and organisers, came from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Myanmar, Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia.

 

Women workers and activists met to consolidate and share their achievements in advancing and promoting women workers’ rights. Partners discussed strategies in organising, supporting, and building capacity of women workers as well as in promoting women's leadership and representation within labour movements at the local and national levels.

 

Organising women workers, and developing women's power and leadership were highlighted as key to advancing women workers' rights. An inspiring example of a struggle for recognition was Maina, an Adivasi from India. Maina fought every inch of the way into a leadership role in the local government structure in her community and region, overcoming prejudices, discrimination and hostility from her peers in goverment.

In terms of organising, women activists shared the different approaches and strategies that their groups used to organise women workers to challenge their exploitation and address their difficult working conditions.

 

 

Issues of occupational safety and health of women workers, especially women's reproductive health in the garments and electronics industries were discussed in a workshop. Participants also shared their strategies advocating for social protection for marginalised women workers in their countries. 

 

In the workshop on social media and visual tools, participants produced campaign materials using simple and easy techniques, to disseminate their message to a wider audience. See more here.

 

The partners also explored opportunities to forge strategic alliances and solidarity with each other and with the broader women’s and LGBT movement. The meeting ended with partners exploring projects and issues to work on over the coming years together, as well as matching each grassroots group's specific needs with the resources from the network.