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Home / CEDAW in Southeast Asia / Thailand / NGO Shadow Report

NGO Shadow Report

When Thailand submitted its 4th and 5th combined periodic reports to the CEDAW Committee in 2004, also submitted for consideration was an NGO Shadow report by a group of women’s NGOs called Thai Women Watch and the CEDAW NGO Working Group. The reports were examined in 2006, during the 34th session of the CEDAW Committee.

Initiated by Thai Women Watch (TW2), the CEDAW NGO Working Group is a coalition of 22 NGOs, including grassroots groups, that are working on women’s issues in Thailand across all its provinces. Their report on the status of women in Thailand, from an NGO perspective, agreed with several of the points included in the government report, but also stressed areas where they felt attention was lacking, or implementation was limited. Some of these areas included the persistence of discrimination in female employment (in both the formal and informal sectors), in healthcare services, and in the treatment of rural women, especially those affected by government projects.

The report stressed the continued existence of traditional gender stereotypes and attitudes, especially in the judicial process and within the ranks of government administration that encouraged discrimination against women, arguing that this prejudice weakened the impact of anti-discrimination laws, policies and measures. They also called for the establishment of a ‘Women Development Fund’, accessible to government agencies and NGOs to carry out research and development activities to improve knowledge leading to ‘effective changes in the environment, opinion and values that cause discrimination against women’.

This is the second NGO shadow report submitted by Thai NGOs. The first report was submitted by Thai Women Watch in 1998 for consideration at the CEDAW Committee’s 20th session in 1999.

Support for the drafting of the 2003 NGO shadow report was provided by International Women’s Right Action Watch Asia-Pacific, the Asia Foundation Thailand, and UNIFEM.

Thailand NGO Shadow Report:

English (227KB - pdf)

For some countries, more than one NGO shadow report may be submitted to the CEDAW Committee. These reports can be found on the International Women's Rights Action Watch - Asia Pacific (IWRAW-AP) website at

http://www.iwraw-ap.org/resources/shadow_reports.htm. IWRAW-AP assists NGOs in channeling their Shadow Reports to the CEDAW Committee for consideration at Committee Sessions.

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