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Japanese Youth Goodwill Mission Visits Cambodia
Wednesday, 08 September 2010 10:16 DAP NEWS / VIBOL
CAMBODIA, PHNOM PENH, SEPTEMBER 8, 2010-A Japanese goodwill mission, consisting of 10 youths aged from 18 to 30 years old and selected from all over Japan, one national leader and one sub-leader, is currently visiting Cambodia from September 3-18 under the Youth Exchange Program 2010 of the Cabinet Office of Japan, the statement from Japanese embassy said on Wednesday.
It added that the Youth Exchange Program aims to promote mutual friendship and understanding between Japanese and foreign young people, and to broaden the international perspectives of Japanese young people so as to foster the spirit of international cooperation.
It said that during the stay in Cambodia, the goodwill mission will visit sites related to social, economic and cultural affairs, as well as Japanese non-governmental organizations
(NGO) projects in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and other provinces.
They will also participate in the Cambodia-Japan Youth Forum at the Phnom Penh Hotel this week. At the end of the visit, a farewell reception will be held, with the participation of the Japanese delegation, officials from the Ministry of Educations, Youth and Sports and NGO staff.
Women Take Their Place in Parliament
Wednesday, 08 September 2010 08:41 DAP NEWS
- Cambodian lawmakers hear about temporary special measures as a means to increase women’s political participation
CAMBODIA, PHNOM PENH, SEPTEMBER 8, 2010-Cambodian leaders joined UN officials and international and regional experts in calling for a redoubling of efforts to increase the number of women in the country’s legislative body to 30 percent, a target required to achieve the Millennium Development Goal by the target year of 2015.
The message was the focus of the “Workshop on Achieving MDG 3 by 2015” which was attended by senior members of the Royal Government of Cambodia, Members of the Cambodian Parliament, UN representatives, regional and international legislators and experts, and members of civil society organizations.
H.E. Men Sam An, Deputy Prime Minister, reaffirmed government’s commitment to improve women’s status.
“The Royal Government of Cambodia has been taking steps to increase to the maximum proportion of women’s participation in all levels of national institutions,” she said in her opening remarks at the workshop.
“However, more concerted efforts are required to address the remaining challenges,” she added.
Women now hold 27 of the 123 seats – or 21 percent in comparison to men – in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. Their representation increased on average 2 percent every five years for the three elections between 1993 and 2003. The last election in 2008 saw that number go up to 12 percent. Meanwhile, in the Senate, the upper house of parliament, women hold 8 of the 61 seats, representing only 13 percent, below both the global and regional averages. Before the MDG 2015 deadline, the National Assembly and the Senate will be required to increase the number of female lawmakers by 9 percent and 17 percent, respectively. But time is of the essence as both Houses have only one election cycle left in which to fill the gap. The next Senate election is in 2012 and the National Assembly in 2013.
Despite some progress, overall Cambodian women continue to face socio-economic disadvantages compared to their male counterparts. Gender parity in literacy for women aged 13-24 has almost been achieved but only a third of domestic violence victims will seek help. And five women die giving life every day.
To give new momentum to MDG 3, the UN Secretary-General recently created UN Women, an agency which is tasked with consolidating and strengthening the UN’s gender policies and work globally. The aim is to enable the UN to mobilise significant resources, both financial resources and technical expertise, to support the global achievement of MDG 3, Mr. Douglas Broderick, UN Resident Coordinator in Cambodia, said in his remarks at the workshop.
In Cambodia, he said, gender continues to be a pillar and cross-cutting issue of focus for the work of all UN agencies in the next five years. He also noted that MDG 3 might fall into the off-track category unless gender-based domestic violence is tackled aggressively.
“Women make up 52 percent of Cambodia’s population, and yet represent only 13 percent of the seats in the Senate and 21 percent in the National Assembly. Without adequate representation, women’s voices are simply not being heard,” Mr. Broderick said.
“Far more important to achieving MDG3 will be mobilising the political will and commitment to bring more women into the political arena. By supporting and training women candidates, by mentoring women who are Members of Parliament, by coaching women in Government at all levels, we can ensure that women’s voices are heard,” he said.
“I’m pleased that the Cambodian government has set a target to elect 30 percent women to the Parliament. The global experience has shown us that temporary measures need to be adapted to each country. Half of the countries in the world now have temporary special measures, something that only happened over the last 10-15 years. Interestingly, these measures are both controversial and popular,” said Prof. Drude Dahlerup from Stockholm University.
Two leading political science professors from Sweden and South Korea discussed the use special temporary measures as a means of increasing female political representation in their respective countries. Members of Parliament from Viet Nam, Timor-Leste, and Lao PDR also shared their own experiences with progress and challenges in ensuring adequate women’s political representation in their own countries.
The workshop was held as part of the “MDG3 Week” from 6-10 September with the support of UNDP and in collaboration with the Cambodian Parliament, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, UNIFEM, the UN Millennium Campaign, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and ActionAid.
PM Hun Sen Sends Message for International Literacy Day
Wednesday, 08 September 2010 05:32 DAP NEWS / VIBOL
CAMBODIA, PHNOM PENH, SEPTEMBER 8, 2010-Cambodian PM Hun Sen has appealed the local authorities to pay attention further on the education and non-formal education to enhance the education equity for local people, the statement from Pm Hun Sen obtained on Wednesday.
This event is very important for persons who have the basic right for education, PM Hun Sen said in his message for the international literacy day.
The government always encouraged all partners to contribute developing the education system in the country. And promote education for all people, he said, adding that literacy is very crucial for contributing poverty reduction for local people. Especially women need to push development.
He also appealed to factories to provide more vacation training and literacy for their staff to build their own capacity in their life skills.
Cambodian has to promote education for all. 73 per cent of Cambodians could read and write.
Cambodia Promotes Gender and Women’s Political Participation
Wednesday, 08 September 2010 04:35 DAP NEWS / VIBOL
CAMBODIA, PHNOM PENH, SEPTEMBER 8, 2010-Cambodian government and international community here on Wednesday conducted a workshop on achieving millennium development goals by 2015, attended by senior members of the government, members of Cambodian parliament, international partners and civil organizations.
Speaking at the workshop, permanent deputy prime minister Men Sam On said the progress the government had made toward mDG3 to promote gender equality and empower women, to increase the number of women in the parliament over the past 15 years. “A lot more need to be done to meet the target, she said.
We set an ambitious target of 30 per cent because as you know, 30 per cent women’s representation in national legislatures is well recognized as the crucial mass needed for women to be able to make a meaningful contribution in an otherwise male-dominated domain, she noted. we have chosen to focus on women’s political participation because this is an area that is lagging we need to fast track and strengthen our focus on women’s empowerment and gender equality, she said.
Women now hold 27 of the 123 seats – or 21 per cent in comparison to men in the national assembly, the lower house of parliament. Their representation increased on average 2 per cent every five years for the three elections between 1993 and 2003.
The last election in 2008 saw that number goes up to 12 per cent. Meanwhile, in the senate, the upper house of parliament, women hold 8 of the 61 seats, representing only 13 per cent, below both the global and regional average. Before the MDG 2015 deadline, the national assembly and the senate will be required to increase the number of female lawmakers by 9 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively. But the time is of the essence as both house have only on election cycle left in which fill the gap. The senate election is in 2012 and the national assembly in 2013.
To give new momentum to MDG3, the UN Secretary General recently, created Un women, an agency which is tasked with consolidating and strengthening the UN’s gender policies and work globally. The aim is to enable the UN to mobilize significant resources, both financial resources and technical expertise, to support the global achievement of MDGs, Douglas Broderick, UN resident coordinator in Cambodia, said in his remarks as the workshop.
In Cambodia, he said, gender continues to be a pillar and cross-cutting issues of focus for the work f all UN agencies in the next five years. He also noted that MDGs might fall into the off-track category unless gender-based domestic violence is tackled aggressively.
Women make up 52 per cent of Cambodia’s population, and yet represent only 13 per cent of seats in the senate and 21 per cent in the national assembly. Without adequate representation, women’s voices are simply not being heard, he added.
Far more important to achiving MDgs will be mobilizing the political will and commitment to bring more women into the political area. By supporting and training women candidates, by mentioning women who are members of parliament , by coaching women in government at all levels, we can ensure that women’s voice are heard, he said.
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