Background

The UN Working Group on discrimination against Women and Girls (WGDAWG) will conduct a country visit to Thailand in order to gain first-hand understanding of issues related to discrimination against women and girls and gender equality, including efforts made and remaining challenges.

The Working Group will consider all forms of discrimination, in law and in practice, relating to all areas of women’s and girls’ lives, namely public and political life, economic and social life, family and cultural life, and health and safety. The Working Group will take into account both States’ duties and corporate responsibility. Violence against women and girls, poverty and socioeconomic inequality, racism, trafficking, migration and access to justice will be examined as cross-cutting issues.

Throughout the visit, the Working Group will pay particular attention to women and girls who encounter multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. The Working Group will address issues pertaining to specific groups of women and girls, such as women and girls from ethnic minority groups; stateless, migrant, asylum-seeking, and refugee women and girls; women and girls with disabilities; girls and young women; older women; women in sex work; women and girls affected by enforced prostitution and sexual exploitation; LBTIQ+ women; rural and indigenous women and girls; and women and girls in detention. These areas of interest are not exhaustive, and the WGDAWG might also look at other relevant issues as they emerge during the visit.

The WGDAWG will meet with a broad range of national stakeholders involved in all aspects of eliminating discrimination against women and girls, including Government officials, representatives of public and independent institutions, members of the legislative and judicial bodies, civil society organizations, academics, and women and girls themselves, with a view towards holistically examining the situation of women’s and girls’ rights in the country.

Objectives

At the end of the visit on 13 December, the Working Group will present an end-of-mission statement and a press release containing preliminary findings and recommendations for State and non-State actors to implement. The full visit report will be presented at the 59th session of the Human Rights Council in June 2025.

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

Civil society actors and all interested stakeholders are encouraged to submit general inputs and specific proposals on the topics listed below as well as other topics which they find relevant. This encompasses any information on possible locations to visit, and relevant actors and stakeholders to meet with.

Context

• Impact of social attitudes and practices on women’s and girls’ lives including on their public and political lives, economic and social lives, family and cultural lives, as well as their health and safety
• Disparities in the enjoyment of women’s and girls’ rights, including in the legal and policy framework
• Achievements and possible limitations of the functioning of institutions working on women’s rights
• Constitutional and other legislative initiatives and reforms to recognise women’s rights, gender equality and non-discrimination
• Retrogressions of women’s and girls’ rights and gender backlash

Family and cultural life of women and girls

• The role of women and men in the family, including with regard to child raising, care work and housework and how compensation for unpaid care work is reflected in laws and policy, if any
• Women and property, including division of matrimonial property in divorce and inheritance laws and the implementation of related laws
• Legal sources of family law, legal definition of family, and social understanding of the family;
• Legislation on marital status, custody rights, nationality, and adultery and the implementation of related laws
• Gender-based stereotypes, including in the media and school curriculums, and their impact on women’s and girls’ participation in cultural life

Economic and social life of women and girls

• Women in full time employment, temporary, and part-time work, and gender wage gaps
• Women in the informal economy, especially in the care economy and the gig economy
• Categories/fields of work where women are mostly represented/underrepresented
• Measures taken to promote women’s economic and financial empowerment
• Women holding leadership and senior level positions in entrepreneurship, commerce and business
• Women and poverty
• Women and socioeconomic inequality
• Child and family friendly policy measures to encourage and support women’s participation in the labour force, including childcare support, and their impact
• Corporate responsibility and measures taken by companies to ensure economic leadership of women, including representation on the boards of listed companies
• Women’s access to education, including higher education, and educational achievement
• Implementation of human rights and gender equality curriculums within schools and educational institutions

Political and public life of women

• Participation of women in all spheres of public and political life at the central and local levels, in the executive, the legislative and the judiciary, including level and extent of representation, meaningful participation achieved, and challenges
• Gender stereotypes and possible violence in the political life
• Challenges faced by women human rights defenders when participating in public life

Women and girls’ rights and access to health

• Enjoyment of the right to health, including sexual and reproductive health rights; access to health services, including prevention services, maternal health, and abortion services; guarantee of women’s safety, integrity and bodily autonomy
• Physical and mental safety (this may include violence against women in the public space and in closed institutions as well as women’s access to justice to secure their right to health and security)
• Special legal reforms and practices to promote non-discrimination and gender equality with regard to health, in particular regarding equal right to enjoy the highest available standard of health; equal access to all forms of healthcare at the highest available level; equal right to enjoy benefits of scientific progress and its application in medicine; and access to sexual and reproductive health information, goods and services, including abortion
• Actions from the State to promote gender equality and non-discrimination, including measures, policies, and national action plans, to ensure women’s and girls’ safety, including in confined spaces (e.g., detention facilities, pre-deportation centres, camps for displaced women and families) or opened spaces (e.g., transports)
• Access to information regarding sexual and reproductive health services and provision of comprehensive sexual education in schools
• Teenage pregnancy
• Access of rural, minority, and indigenous women and girls to health services, including sexual and reproductive health services
• Women in situations of sex work
• Women and girls affected by enforced prostitution and sexual exploitation

Violence against women and girls as a crosscutting theme

• Statistical data (estimated prevalence, number of cases reported, number of cases brought to justice, number of sentences)
• Legal framework on all forms of gender-based violence, including, inter alia, domestic violence, psychological violence, sexual violence (including marital rape), sexual harassment, violence perpetrated by State actors, etc.
• Implementation of the legal framework
• Services for the protection, care and rehabilitation of victims of violence in the context of economic crisis
• Awareness and capacity building of public officials to prevent and address cases of violence against women and girls

Women and girls who encounter multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination

• Particular challenges faced by girls and young women, rural women and girls, women and girls from minority and indigenous groups, stateless migrant, asylum-seeking and refugee women and girls, women and girls with disabilities, older women, women in sex work, women and girls affected by enforced prostitution and sexual exploitation, LBTIQ+ women and girls, women and girl human rights defenders, and women and girls in detention

Women's access to justice

• Situations faced by women in accessing justice (existence of free legal aid, gender-based stereotyping in the justice system, etc.)
• Existence of human rights training for judges and any other promising practices in relation to the protection and promotion of women’s and girls’ human rights

Women and Girls in the digital space

• Gender digital divide and women’s and girls’ access to technologies
• National and local policies to encourage and support women and girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields
• Digital dimension of gender-based discrimination and violence
• Artificial Intelligence and women’s and girls’ rights
• Bridging the digital gender divide/ human rights based digital policies responsive to women and girls’ needs
• Critical contributions of women human rights defenders and feminist movements using the transformative power of digital technology to connect, mobilize, and drive social change, while fighting against the persistent pushback of women’s and girls’ rights

You do not need to provide inputs on all the issues mentioned above. You can focus on the ones relevant to your area of work. If you reply after 23 October 2024, your submission might not be considered during the country visit, but it will be taken into account in the drafting process of the Working Group’s report which will be presented at the Human Rights Council in in June 2025. Early submissions are greatly encouraged.

How inputs will be used?

Submission will remain confidential. They will be considered during the country visit and will be taken into account in the drafting process of the Working Group’s report before the Human Rights Council in 2025.