UK Emphasises That Women's Rights and Participation Must Not Regress

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The UK Minister for the Indo-Pacific, Seema Malhotra, emphasised that there must be no regression in women’s rights and participation in both civil and political spheres.

“There must be no regression in women’s rights, in women’s voices, in women’s education, or in women’s involvement in civil society, including support for women’s participation in the political sphere,” Minister Malhotra told the media during a ‘Public Discussion on Women, Peace, and Security after 25 Years’ in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Minister Malhotra stated that the women, peace, and security agenda is an area in which the UK has demonstrated leadership for over 25 years, referring to the UK’s leadership in the birth of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda in 2000.

Malhotra emphasised that the idea behind the resolution is that when women are represented in decision-making related to security and conflict resolution, the result is much more stable and lasting peace.

“It is very important to ensure that there are women’s voices, women’s leadership, and the involvement of girls in shaping our efforts in the areas of peace, climate action, and addressing climate issues,” she said.

Furthermore, Malhotra said that the UK, in its partnership with ASEAN, has established the UK-ASEAN Partnership Action Plan (2022-2026) on Women, Peace, and Security, which has since been strengthened by including the WPS agenda in the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 this year.

Through this action plan, the UK and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have set measurable targets to increase women’s representation and ensure government accountability for progress made.

The UK has also trained more than 4,000 stakeholders across ASEAN, of which more than 400 are state actors.

In addition, the UK has developed the ASEAN WPS Knowledge Hub, a platform containing knowledge on women, peace, and security that has been used by more than 3,500 people to support evidence-based policy formulation.

“We have helped six ASEAN countries work with their governments to adopt and update national action plans, including Vietnam and Malaysia, and we are continuing our work with Indonesia in the second phase,” Malhotra added.