Outcome KHM_D_6.1

The RGC resources, coordinates and transparently monitors implementation of international commitments to GE&WE, in consultation with rights holders including Young women and LGBTIQ persons.

There has been significant progress for this outcome in 2023. The Seventh Legislature of the National Assembly shows a political commitment in advancing gender equality and promoting the rights of women and girls through its policy agenda, including in the Pentagonal Strategy Phase I. With the support of UN Women, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) carried out monitoring of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) at the sub-national level, and promoted women’s voice in peace and security. The RGC, through the work of Cambodia National Council for Women (CNCW), has honoured the ratification of CEDAW by investing national resources in the monitoring work by sub-national actors and through drafting a Roadmap for the Development of Progress Report of the Implementation of the CEDAW Concluding Observation. The development of the Roadmap is considered a crucial step for Cambodia to the compilation the Seventh Periodic Report to CEDAW. Meanwhile, women’s personal and professional experiences working in Peace Operations have been voiced through the report on Measuring Opportunities for Women in Peace Operations. The draft report has been submitted to RGC for final comments. The report provides evidence-based recommendations for improving future work on women, peace and security in the Cambodian context as well as ensuring doing no harm for women and promoting their role and leadership in cross-border peace building. In this process, UN Women has provided financial, technical and coordination support between research institutions and the key actors in RGC. In addition, national dialogues in building understanding of women, peace security with wide range of stakeholders, including youth, has fuelled national commitment towards the development of a National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security, which is part of CEDAW Concluding Observation 13 (b) and 13 (c). Facebook Additionally, during this reporting period, the young women’s and LGBTQI movements have been able to communicate their issues to the public and duty bearers. Breakthrough (BT) and Love Is Diversity (LID), are two successful movements working towards gender equality and addressing discrimination. The movements have continuously created space and empowered young women and LGBTIQ communities through social media and dialogue platforms as well as outreach. Since its establishment till present, LID has reached thousands of people and provided LGBTIQ people with a safe space to share their stories and seek support and information about their rights. The movement has also been able to convey messages which reflect the communities and individual’s experiences and needs of the communities and the individuals to the public and duty bearers for further advocacy. At the same time the BT Movement, led by young women, to combat promote gender equality, challenge, and break through discriminatory social norms, continues to use a social media platform to create dialogues on key emerging harmful gendered social norms that deny women and girls their human rights. The movements have showcased young women’s stories, experiences and voice and have served as a space to start dialogues leading to young women’s empowerment. The achievements above show the relevance and effectiveness of the strategy which works based on applying a human rights-based approach focusing on women’s rights and movement building. While working with duty bearers at the national level, the UN Women is also working to support rights holders, such as those in these two movements, to continue demanding their rights and raising awareness on the issues and their rights, as well as providing a space to start dialogues. This clearly indicates that the strategy provided an opportunity to experiment through the co-creative process of youth group as right holders within their movement for advocacy work that lead to increased investment in monitoring and implementation of the laws and policies as well as positive changes for women’s participation in the public sphere.

The RGC resources, coordinates and transparently monitors implementation of international commitments to GE&WE, in consultation with rights holders including Young women and LGBTIQ persons.

The final update of the CEDAW Concluding Observations action plan is in the process of endorsement by members of the Cambodia National Council for Women (CNCW). Final inputs, revisions and updates were received from 23 Ministries/Institutions. It should be noted that the majority of Ministries/Institutions, especially Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA), Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS), Ministry of Interior (MoI), Ministry of Plan (MoP), Office of the Council of Ministers (CoM), Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning & Construction (MLMUPC), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Ministry of Environment (MoE), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MFAIC), Ministry of Social Affairs Veterans & Youth Rehabilitation (MoSAVYR), Ministry of National Assembly-Senate Relations and Inspection(MoNASRI), Ministry of Information (MoINF), Ministry of Water Resources & Meteorology (MoWRAM), Ministry of Commerce (MoC), Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), Ministry of Economy & Finance (MEF), National AIDS Authority (NAA), Ministry of Tourism (MoT), Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training (MoLVT), Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and Ministry of Justice (MoH), and to a lesser extent, Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications (MoPTC), Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications (MoPWT), Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation (MISTI), Ministry of Cult & Religious Affairs (MCRA), Ministry of Culture & Fine Arts( MCFA), Ministry of National Defense (MND), and State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SCCA) provided clear and substantial actions in response to most of the COBs. There was evidence that many Ministries/Institutions referred to or directly quoted from their Strategic Plans, Action Plans, Policies and or Gender mainstreaming Action Plans (GMAPs). Ownership of government partners (CNCW and MOWA) has been a significant driving force to mobilise/coordinate relevant line ministries to implement CEDAW Concluding Observation and the 3rd National Action Plan to Prevent Violence Against Women (NAPVAW). Women representation has been significantly improved particularly in climate change and disaster risk reduction actions at the ground level. Women Champion Network (WCN) in KohKong, Pursat and Kompot province has continued to represent women, especially young women and rural women in various climate change and disaster risk reduction platforms at the sub-national level. This include participating in Commune Investment plan and 3-year rolling plan development, becoming panelists for climate change stakeholder discussion ( Facebook Live | Facebook .), showcasing women leadership in climate change action at regional level ( Final Videos - OneDrive (sharepoint.com) and participating in the advocacy for forest conservation ( https://web.facebook.com/watch/?v=510115346786030 ). In the meantime, WCN also contributed to Covid-19 prevention by working with local authorities to install billboards and conduct community outreach to raise awareness on Covid-19 prevention measures. Discrimination against LGBTIQ persons is recognized as an abuse of human rights and has been addressed through the implementation of National Action Plan to Prevent Violence Against Women 2019-2023 and UPR recommendations. For example, MOWA and Cambodia Human Right Committee (CHRC) have engaged positively with forums focusing on right of LGBTIQ persons organized by civil society organisations, activist groups and the United Nations (UN) https://fb.watch/aPqqJgoZuY/. In addition, coinciding with URP mid-term review process, a dialogue between United Nations and CHRC has endeavored for more measures to address law discrimination against gender identity and same sex marriage as well as all forms of violence against LGBTIQ persons both in private and public sphere link https://fb.watch/aProc6nAUY/ There are no new laws and policies that have been adapted/endorsed/amended during this reporting period. However, the Royal Government of Cambodia via Cambodia National Council for Women (CNCW) has a final draft CEDAW COB action plan to monitor gender equality and women's empowerment- GEWE.

The RGC resources, coordinates and transparently monitors implementation of international commitments to GE&WE, in consultation with rights holders including Young women and LGBTIQ persons.

Significant progress and achievements have been observed for this outcome. The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) via the Cambodia National Council for Women (CNCW) has endorsed an action plan for implementing and monitoring CEDAW Concluding Observation (CEDAW COB) that was supported by UN Women Cambodia in March 2022. The action plan has dual purposes. The action plan is used as a monitoring tool to track progress and/or change in response to the CEDAW COB, while on the other hand the plan provides high level guidance for the line ministry members to focus their actions for advancing gender equality and women's empowerment. As a result, in 2022 the CEDAW COB follow-up report was submitted by the RGC which demonstrates the government's accountability in engaging with the CEDAW monitoring process. The report formulation process enables the most relevant line ministries (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Women Affairs) members to assess the progress made on recommendations contained in paragraphs 19, 25 (b) and 47 (d) and identify forward looking measures to accelerate the implementation. National budget allocated for legal aid via he Cambodia National Council for Women's (CNCW) secretariat supporting gender-based violence (GBV) survivors remains as a priority to implement. There is a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between CNCW and the Bar Association of Kingdom of Cambodia (2021-2023) being implemented despite that RGC has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the MOU is also contributing to strengthening the legal aid referral mechanisms between social and legal services which is likely to motivate GBV survivors to report and seek services. It is also reported that the MOU has contributed to enhancing knowledge of attorneys in supporting women survivors through applying a gender lens and rights-based and survivor-centred principles. The national budget has been used to monitor the Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (GEWE) measures at both national and sub-national levels which has been led by senior women and men leaders of CNCW. In line with CEDAW COB, CNCW’s leaders conducted a sub-national monitoring visits to understand the current situation of women in prisons, access to GBV services and women leadership and participation in public life. The stakeholder meeting conducted during the visit was also open to participation of civil society representatives to share their observations as well as experience. For example, the provincial stakeholder meeting in Modulkiri Province (situated on the northern part of the country and there are ethnic minority communities) was co-conducted by provincial governor and CNCW’s leaders attended by nine civil society organisations (CSO) where the government legal aid for GBV was introduced and CNCW leaders sought for collaboration related to case referral. Engaging CSOs in the CEDAW sub-national monitoring visit has demonstrated positive actions of the government in recognition of the important role of CSOs in implementing and monitoring CEDAW. There is a greater national trend to accept LGBTIQ persons in Cambodia society. For example, local authorities in some communities fully support traditional marriage, recognizing the challenge that there is no law to legalise same sex couples. Further, more and more state actors acknowledge that diversity in sexual orientation and gender diversity exist in human kind and LGBTIQ persons/communities are valuable human resources for Cambodia society. However Cambodia does not have neither anti-discrimination law nor policy to recognize gender identity and legal marriage. LGBTIQ persons/communities have been prioritized as one among vulnerable populations in the third National Action Plan to Prevent Violence Against Women 2019-2023, yet both prevention and response have adequately not reflected the experiences of LGBTIQ. Victim blaming has been a subject of debate and civil societies, including urban young women, media key influencers and gender advocates have been supporting campaigning for changing the narrative which focus on reinforcing justice for women, women body autonomy and women's rights. Minister of Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) has quoted in Thmey Thmey: Cambodianess article: Women victims of rape or sexual harassment tend to be blamed if they wear sexy clothes while offenders are found not guilty; dated on September 22, 2022. For full article, please find the link here: https://cambodianess.com/article/clothing-is-not-a-signal-to-harass-women-minister?fbclid=IwAR3lIJJqnLb4WVtCpIzFL8LhoyYmOalVtFjEnqJ9JB6m_xd8Sw7uC2ILXiI UN Women has contributed significantly to above-mentioned results. These include provision of technical assistance, policy advice and support for some consultations and publication for finalizing the CEDAW COB follow-up report as well as CEDAW monitoring. The support given has been appreciated by the Secretary General and Minister of Women's Affairs who is the chair of CNCW. Furthermore, through engagement with CNCW CEDAW monitoring, UN Women can strengthen its strategic alliance with the chairwomen and women leaders of gender mainstreaming action groups of the Ministry of Economic and Finance for advocating on gender budgets. In addition, UN Women continues to support movement building of young gender advocates to address discrimination and violence against women and LGBTIQ persons. These include capacity building to utilize social media and storytelling to public awareness campaigns, conducting dialogues and strengthening intergenerational networks building through transformative leadership programme. At the same time, UN Women Cambodia has engaged actively with UNCT under the coordination of Resident Coordinator to continue advocacy actions on Gender Based Violence, rights of LGBTIQ persons and women's status and participation in public life. This includes providing gender analysis, key talking points reflecting critical gender issues in Cambodia for dialogues with state agents and civil societies. Through the UNCT advocacy campaign, UN Women mandates, especially related to normative support, have been introduced to key state actors such as the Ministry of Interior, National Police, National Peace Center, and the Ministry of Justice. It has been demonstrated that the original approaches and theory of change are relevant and effective in advancing GEWE. However, irreversible changes are likely to consume time and resources which potentially cause long delays in action related to legislation formulation or amendment and social norm change. The programme should consistently observe sensitivities particularly with regards to movement and coalition building. Maintaining the current outcome, while more progress needs to be made along with joint advocacy campaigns need to be continued for 2023. This could be accelerated via UN Coordination system-UNCT, UNGTG, and Human Right Taskforce. Further, risk assessments that may affect GEWE need to be updated as Cambodia will have a national election in July, 2023.