1. We, the delegates of ten ASEAN Member Countries, namely Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam, gathered at the ASEAN High-Level Meeting on Good Practices in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Reporting and Follow-up on 14-15 January 2008 in Vientiane, Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
2. We reaffirmed the importance of the CEDAW as a guiding framework of the 1988 Declaration on the Advancement of Women in the ASEAN Region, the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA), the outcome of the Twenty Third Special Session of the UN General Assembly in 2000, the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000, the 2004 Bangkok Communiqué adopted at the UNESCAP Regional Review of the BPFA and the 2004 ASEAN Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in ASEAN. The implementation of these important documents has contributed to the implementation of the ASEAN vision 2020 and the purposes and principles of the ASEAN Charter.
3. We recognized the steady progress achieved in ASEAN Member Countries in the enhancement of the role and contributions of ASEAN women and in mainstreaming gender into policies, plans, programmes and budgets. In this regard, we reiterated the Joint Statement and Commitment to Implement Gender Mainstreaming within the Context of CEDAW, BPFA and MDGs adopted at the ASEAN High-level Meeting on Gender Mainstreaming held on 15-16 November 2006 in Jakarta, Indonesia, and reaffirmed the importance of the CEDAW as one of the international instruments for gender mainstreaming together with the BPFA and MDGs.
4. We reiterated our commitment to fulfilling the obligation of the States Parties to the CEDAW in implementing the Convention, submitting periodic reports to the CEDAW Committee and following up on the Concluding Comments.
5. We agreed to continue sharing experiences and good practices in the implementation, monitoring and reporting of the CEDAW.
6. We agreed to further enhance the CEDAW implementation, monitoring and reporting through the following:
Follow the reporting guidelines of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women;
Assign a State agency to undertake a lead in coordinating the process of the CEDAW implementation and preparing periodic reports to the Committee;
Promote a collective whole-government approach in drafting the CEDAW periodic reports through the establishment of inter-agency working groups;
Strengthen the existing national CEDAW reporting and monitoring mechanisms to ensure the effectiveness among the relevant government agencies;
Establish a monitoring database and ensure easily available and accessible sex-disaggregated data and information;
Integrate issues raised in the CEDAW Concluding Comments into national and sectoral development plans as and when relevant.
7. We recognized that capacity-building is an important factor in the efforts to fulfill the obligation under CEDAW. We agreed to continue to undertake national efforts as well as further deepen and broaden ASEAN cooperation by continuing to exchange views and experiences towards sustainable capacity development for the implementation, monitoring and reporting of the CEDAW.
8. We agreed to continue enhancing cooperation and partnerships with all stakeholders, UN agencies and other relevant non-government partners of ASEAN in the effort to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment. In this regard, we would appreciate technical support with respect to developing strategies for implementing the CEDAW and fulfilling reporting obligation.
9. We noted with satisfaction that all ASEAN Member Countries had ratified the CEDAW. Therefore, we encouraged some ASEAN Member Countries which still maintain some reservations to consider removing the reservations to the Convention.
10. We encouraged ASEAN Member Countries which have not ratified the Optional Protocol to the CEDAW to study the Optional Protocol and its requirement.
11. We agreed to hold the 2nd ASEAN High-Level Meeting on Good Practices in the CEDAW Reporting and Follow-up in 2010.
Adopted in Vientiane, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, on 15 January 2008.