Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact

The Indigenous Women programme is aimed at empowering the indigenous women through networking, education and capacity building activities. One of the objectives of this programme is to promote awareness of indigenous women’s rights for them to be able to effectively participate in decision making at all levels, from their communities, to the national, regional and international levels.

As such AIPP has a gender policy in all its activities and its governance structure. In promoting gender justice policy and the full achievement of this programme’s objectives, it is imperative for AIPP to strengthen the mainstreaming of women’s issues and concerns and ensure greater engagement and participation of indigenous women in all the programme activities.

Towards achieving its aim, AIPP has started a project on Empowering Indigenous Women in Traditional Customary Institutions. This project is supported by UNIFEM for the duration: 15 September 2010 to 31 December 2013.

It is being implemented in the indigenous communities in three countries by our local partners: the Cordillera Women’s Education Action Research Centre (SWEARC) in the Philippines, the Adivasi Women’s Network (AWN) and Indigenous Women’s Forum of Northeast India (IWFNEI) in India, and the Nepal Indigenous Women Federation (NIWF) in Nepal.

The overall goal of the project is to empower indigenous women to advocate and lobby for the recognition of women’s rights with a focus on violence against women (VAW) in the customary laws and in local legislation.

The project involves trainings and support to the activities of women in awareness raising, advocacy, dialogues and community mobilizations in promoting indigenous women’s rights. In particular, the target is to effect positive changes in the practice and implementation of customary laws in which provisions and sanctions against Violence Against Women (VAW) are strengthened, and women are given the right to participate in traditional decision-making institutions.  Adopting them in local legislations in indigenous territories where feasible can then further strengthen these positive changes in customary laws. It is expected that this will have a multiplier effect when adopted and implemented likewise by other indigenous communities across Asia.