Bangkok--23 Mar--UN
The United Nations system in Thailand will hold a special session on Thursday, 25 March to mark International Women’s Day, which this year is being observed with the theme, "Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for All."
The event will feature a keynote address by H.E. Dr Saisuree Chutikul, former Minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office, Royal Thai Government, and current Member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, providing a global overview on efforts to achieving gender equality and equal rights, opportunities and progress for all.
Also featured will be a panel discussion on "Women Speak Up: Voices of the Informal Sector," which will focus on women working in informal employment, addressing accountability and the need to affirm the value of women’s work in the informal sector, while making linkages with migration, HIV, violence against women and women’s leadership.
A high percentage of people working in the informal sector are poor, work under irregular and casual contracts, earn lower wages and lack social protections. Women are over-represented in the informal sector worldwide, particularly because they are less able than men to compete in labour, capital and product markets due to relatively low levels of education and skills. These disadvantages are even more pronounced when compounded with other social and economic vulnerabilities, such as being a migrant worker, a domestic worker or having HIV—these also put women in a more vulnerable position to gender-based violence.
There will also be a personal testimony by Po Po, who will speak on her experience as a domestic migrant worker from Myanmar. The panel includes Virada Somswasdi, Head of the Women’s Studies Center at Chiangmai University and President of the Foundation for Women, Law and Rural Development (FORWARD); Kirenjit Kaur, Coordinator of Women of the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS and Madhura Chatrapathy, Trustee Director at the Asian Centre for Entrepreneurial Initiatives (ASCENT).
A reception will be held following the programme, accompanied by an exhibition by UN agencies as well as a photo exhibit celebrating the 30th anniversary of CEDAW. The special session follows an earlier commemoration that took place on 8 March, the designated International Women’s Day.
The event is organized by the UN Regional Coordination Mechanism Thematic Working Group on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women, an interagency group co-chaired by ESCAP and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
NOTE TO EDITORS
Members of the press are invited to attend the event on Thursday, 25 March, at 9.30 a.m. in Conference Room 4 of the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok. Please send your name and the news organization you represent in advance to
[email protected] in order to facilitate entrance to the UN Conference Centre. Speakers will also be available for media interviews prior to or following the event.
For further information, please contact:
Mr. Don Clarke
Chief, Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Social Development Division, UNESCAP
Tel:288 1909
Email:
[email protected]
Ms. Thawadi Pachariyangkun
UN/ESCAP Information Services
Tel: +66-2 288-1861
Email:
[email protected]