Misun Woo

In September 1995, following the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China, a declaration was issued proclaiming, among other things, that “women’s rights are human rights.” The resulting resolution identified 12 “critical areas of concern,” ranging from “The persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women” to unequal access to education, violence against women to “Inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and decision-making at all levels.” Nearly 30 years later, as Misun Woo – the regional coordinator of Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development – told The Diplomat’s Managing Editor Catherine Putz in the following interview, women continue to face many of the exact same challenges. It’s not just the patriarchy; other “structural causes of marginalization and inequality” – like globalization, climate change, various fundamentalisms, and militarism – are behind the stagnation in women’s rights and human rights more generally. In the years ahead, Woo says, “it will be critical for feminist and women’s rights movements, especially with Global South feminist leadership, to articulate solutions, reclaim ways of living and being that have been lost due to various forms of domination and oppression, and connect these stories and solutions both vertically and horizontally so that we can concretely co-imagine and build a new future.” In talking with APWLD’s many members and partners across Asia, are there common themes in regard to the challenges women face? Asia and the Pacific is one of the least-resourced regions in the world, and feminist and women’s rights organizations/networks hardly have a say in determining “funding priorities or modalities” – even in cases where those resources aim to support gender equality, women’s leadership, or feminist movements in Asia and the Pacific.