1. BACKGROUND OF PROJECT AND CAMPAIGN Violence against women (VAW) is a pervasive human right violation that affects one out of three women worldwide.[1] Cutting across all distinctions of geography, class or ethnicity, it is firmly grounded in unequal power relations between women and men and reinforced by discriminatory and gender-biased attitudes, norms and practices that both contribute to such violations and allow them to continue unchallenged. VAW impedes human development and has serious negative consequences, ranging from multiple immediate to long-term physical, sexual and psychological impacts, which often prevent women and girls from fully participating in society. In addition, it carries tremendous economic costs for women, their families, for businesses, national budgets, the economy and society at large. VAW is rooted in gender inequality, discrimination, and harmful cultural and social norms. It is an expression of power and control of men over women. Harmful notions of masculinity, the sense of sexual entitlement that many men have over women and their bodies, and the widespread cultural acceptance of violence, drive violence against women and allow it to continue unchallenged. Women migrant workers are disproportionately vulnerable to violence, abuse and exploitation at all stages of the migration cycle and they often experience intersectional forms of discrimination due to the sector of labour market insertion, legal status, limited access to information, debt bondage, among others. As outlined in the 2017 Report of the Secretary-General on “Violence against women migrant workers”, while women can considerably increase their agency through their decision to migrate, they are also overwhelmingly featured as survivors of VAW and trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation. Women migrant survivors of violence and trafficking face multiple challenges while seeking justice or accessing essential services. Lack of gender-sensitive facilities and reception services, absence of protection orders, limited referral networks and coordination mechanisms are among the main barriers faced by survivors of VAW. Safe and Fair: Realizing women migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the ASEAN region (2018-2022), is part of the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls, a global, multi-year initiative between the European Union and United Nations. Safe and Fair is implemented through a partnership between the ILO and UN Women with the overriding objective of ensuring that labour migration is safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region. The programme aims to address women migrant workers’ vulnerabilities to violence and trafficking, strengthen rights-based and gender-responsive approaches to violence against women and labour migration governance, and support access to essential services. In Thailand, Safe and Fair works in close cooperation with governments and social partners to achieve three inter-linking specific objectives: (1) Women migrant workers are better protected by gender-sensitive labour migration governance frameworks; (2) Women migrant workers are less vulnerable to violence and trafficking and benefit from coordinated responsive quality services; and (3) Data, knowledge and attitudes on the rights and contributions of women migrant workers are improved. The programme strategy mainstreams three cross-cutting topics: women’s voice and agency; rights-based approach; and broad engagement of stakeholders. Hotlines and helplines are essential components of social services Which comprise a range of services that are critical in supporting the rights, safety and wellbeing of women and girls experiencing violence. it is important that capacities of hotlines, helplines, as well as frontlines services are enhanced to ensure the effective coordination and availability of quality essential services for women, girls, and women migrant workers who are survivors of violence during the pandemic and under the new normal situations. To understand the situation and challenges in providing essential social services, Safe and Fair Thailand organized the “Regional Safe and Fair Essential Services Workshop” in July 2019 and Thailand subsequently the “Essential Services Workshop” in November 2019, as well as conducted a study on “Social Assistance Center (1300 National Hotline) Analysis” in 2019. From these activities, key recommended recommendations are highlighted to enhance Social Assistance Center’s capacity as follows: - Training and Workforce Development. Ensure that staff is well-trained on effective communication, non-judgmental, empathetic and supportive. Provide information and counseling that helps women and girls to make her own decisions. Ensure crisis counseling is appropriate to the various forms of violence experienced by women
- Access to quality crisis information/counseling for all women. Ensure crisis information is widely available and accessible to all women and children, regardless of their backgrounds. Increase publication and distribution of information on existing services to women and women migrant workers both in Thai and migrant workers’ languages. Ensure availability of interpretation services.
- Referral Mechanisms and Pathways, Standard Operating Procedures, and Protocols. Ensure the hotlines/helpline has protocols connecting it with other social services, health and justice to respond to individual circumstances of the woman. Ensure the hotlines/helplines has access to resources where necessary to ensure the safety of women and girls such as safety planning, service directory, referral pathway. Include networks of NGOs/CSOs working with women migrants in coordinated system and SOPS (this links to broader system).
Under COVID-19 situation, more declarations of states of emergency and lockdown across the region, women, girls, and vulnerable groups are at an increased risk of gender-based violence due to increased chances of living together and longer hours with perpetrators and growing tensions, while the essential services and support to GBV survivors (health, social, justice) and emergency shelters are disrupted. During the pandemic, women and girls are put at greater risks of violence because of household stress over economic and health shocks combined with forced coexistence in narrow living spaces[2]. According to VAWG Helpdesk report, dated March 2020, there are reports of increases in violence against women incidents in the countries most affected by the outbreak, while the essential services and support to GBV survivors and emergency shelters are disrupted. With this challenge, a consultative meeting on hotlines and helplines was organized on 10 July 2020, to discuss strategies and measures to ensure the effective coordination and availability of quality essential services for women, girls, and women migrant workers who are survivors of violence during the pandemic and under the new normal situations. As a result of the consultative meeting, opportunities for collaboration on the capacity buildings for hotlines and helplines as well as other cooperation was identified to enhance coordinated quality service provision in Thailand during the COVID-19 pandemic.? On 18 August 2020, a meeting between 1300 National Hotline and Safe and Fair Programme officers was organized to discuss possible cooperation to strengthen quality hotline services for women. During the meeting, following opportunities are identified to increase quality and accessibility hotline services (including those operated by NGOs, CSOs) for all women and girls, especially women migrant workers as follows. - Referral pathway that is linked with all VAW services (including VAW services for migrant women).
- Information kits, including Q&A on GBV cases in key languages of women migrant workers
- Training and short VDO Clips for capacity building of hotlines staff
- Interpreters or operators (speaking key migrant’s languages: Burmese/ Khmer)
This activity is part of the cooperation between Safe and Fair Thailand, Thailand’s 1300 National Hotline and ACWC’s strategy to enhance the accessibility and quality of hotlines and helplines for women and girls experiencing violence, especially migrant workers in Thailand. [1] World Health Organization, Global and Regional Estimates of Violence against Women: Prevalence and Health Effects of Intimate Partner Violence and Non-partner Sexual violence (2013), p.2. Available from: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/85239/1/9789241564625_eng.pdf [2] UN Women. (2020). COVID-19 and Ending Violence Against Women and Girls [Ebook]. UN Women. Retrieved from https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2020/04/covid-19-and-ending-violence-against-women-and-girls
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