CEDAW: Singapore

[For the oral statement, we had representatives from Tsao Foundation/WINGS, Project X, Sayoni, and AWARE speaking for the women's NGO coalition/HOME/TWC2/CDE.] An important part of the CEDAW process is the constructive dialogue, in which the CEDAW Committee asks questions directed at government representatives, after having received the government's report and additional information from NGOs and…

Prior to the actual CEDAW session, we attended a training session by IWRAW on what to expect for today's Informal Public Meeting or oral statement session. Each country is given only 10 minutes to present, and all the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from that country have to share this time to raise their issues. Sayoni had…

We are at the United Nations in Geneva this week for Singapore's CEDAW session, as a key part of Sayoni’s advocacy for queer women’s issues. CEDAW stands for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, a convention that was ratified by Singapore in 1995. Many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are involved…

AWARE, the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (H.O.M.E.), Sayoni and the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations (SCWO) express concerns at the UN review of Singapore’s gender equality. 1. Gender equality experts from the CEDAW Committee asked more than 100 questions during an intense, five-hour Constructive Dialogue with Singapore’s State delegation at the 49th CEDAW session on 22 July…

Editor's note: This is the oral statement by Sayoni, delivered by Kelly, before the UN last week. Our team has completed their duties at CEDAW, and we await their return from New York so that we can congratulate them on a job well done. Madam Chair, I am from Sayoni and represent women in Singapore…

There were tears when I contemplated on all the things we have done at the eve of the Singapore government's session with the CEDAW committee. They were not of sadness or regret but a crescendo of the many emotions that swept us daily throughout the last week. We spoke about the victims of violence we…

We have had so little time to write about our CEDAW journey here due to the frantic pace. I believe if we try, most of our sentences will be incoherent anyway due to the fatigue level we’re experiencing. But we soldier on. We are doing everything we can because so many people are depending on…