The Acting Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Brunei Darussalam, the Senior Minister and
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the
Kingdom of Cambodia, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the
Republic of Indonesia, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
Foreign Affairs of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia, the Minister for Foreign
Affairs of the Union of Myanmar, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of
the Republic of the Philippines, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of
the Republic of Singapore, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the
Kingdom of Thailand and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the
Socialist Republic of Viet Nam;
RECALLING the Declaration on
the Elimination of Violence against Women adopted by the United
Nations General Assembly in its Resolution 48/104 of 20 December
1993, and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination Against Women;
CONCERNED that violence
against women is an obstacle to the achievement of equality,
development and peace, as embodied in the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action adopted in September 1995 by the
Fourth World Conference on Women and reiterated in the twenty-third
special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000:
Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st
Century”;
DESIRING to intensify the
aims and purposes of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) of
1967, the Declaration of ASEAN Concord of 1976, the Manila
Declaration of 1987, the Declaration of the Advancement of Women in
the ASEAN Region of 1988 and the Ha Noi Plan of Action of
1998;
RECOGNISING that violence against women both
violates and impairs their human rights and fundamental freedoms,
limits their access to and control of resources and activities, and
impedes the full development of their
potential;
DO HEREBY DECLARE
THAT:
In the context of strengthening regional
cooperation, collaboration and coordination for the purpose of
eliminating violence against women in the region, each Member
Country, either individually or collectively, in ASEAN shall
endeavour to fully implement the goals and commitments made related
to eliminating violence against women and monitor their progress as
follows:
1.
To encourage
greater regional and bilateral cooperation in the systematic
research, collection, analysis and dissemination of data, including
disaggregated by sex, age, and other relevant information, on the
extent, nature and consequences of violence against women and girls,
and on the impact and effectiveness of policies and programmes for
combating violence against women;
2.
To promote an
integrated and holistic approach to eliminate violence against women
by formulating mechanisms focusing on the four areas of concerns of
violence against women, namely, providing services to fulfill the
needs of survivors, formulating and taking appropriate responses to
offenders and perpetrators, understanding the nature and causes of
violence against women and changing societal attitudes and
behaviour;
3.
To encourage
gender mainstreaming to eliminate all forms of violence against
women through policies and programmes as well as systems, procedures
and processes;
4. To enact and, where
necessary, reinforce or amend domestic legislation to prevent
violence against women, to enhance the protection, healing,
recovery and reintegration of victims/survivors,
including measures to investigate, prosecute, punish and where
appropriate rehabilitate perpetrators, and prevent re-victimisation
of women and girls subjected to any form of violence, whether in the
home, the workplace, the community or society or in custody;
5.
To take all
necessary measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against
women and to empower women and
strengthen their economic independence and to protect and promote
the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms in
order to allow women and girls to protect themselves against
violence;
6.
To intensify
efforts to develop and/or improve existing legislative,
educational, social measures and support services aimed at the prevention
of violence against women, including adoption and monitoring the
implementation of laws, the dissemination of information, active
involvement with community-based players, and the training of legal,
judicial, enforcement officers, social workers and health
personnel;
7.
To strengthen
collaboration between and among countries, through bilateral,
regional and international cooperation for resource mobilisation and
technical exchange programmes, including sharing of best practices
and experience in
raising awareness, developing advocacy programmes on preventing and
tackling violence against
women;
8. To support initiatives
undertaken by women’s organisations and non-governmental and
community-based organisations on the elimination of violence against
women and to establish and/or strengthen networking as well as
collaborative relationships with these organisations, and with public and
private sector institutions.
DONE in Jakarta, Indonesia, this Thirtieth
day of June in the Year Two Thousand and Four, in one single copy in
English.
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