How is the situation of women’s rights and their role as bridge-builders today, connecting between the multilateral and local settings? A recent seminar at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), hosted by its International Studies Center, elaborated upon the situation in a world witnessing tumultuous changes. Notably, there has never been a woman UN Secretary General, nor, for Thailand, a woman Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Less than 20 per cent of key politicians at the national and local levels in this country are women. Yet, there has been some progress due to welcome changes of laws, policies and practices, such as the country’s Gender Equality Act. Of course, the country’s Prime Minister is a woman, but the fate of her aunt, also a PM, overturned by a coup d’etat, should not be overlooked. The fickleness of international and national politics interplays with the fate of women’s rights, especially their implementation.

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Currently, the post-World War II multilateral framework is being compromised, if not dismantled, by rampant nationalismcum-transactionalism, with an introspective vibe at the apex of the superpower level. There is an ideological undercurrent which seeks to stifle a more liberal interpretation of women’s rights and to upstage the gains which have been enjoyed by all, including the impetus from the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Beware of the rambunctious chauvinism emanating from key international players, whether in peace or in war! The global community and friends of women’s rights need to be more strategic in these fluctuating times.

The most prominent instrument safeguarding women’s rights is the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The CEDAW Committee which supervises the treaty’s implementation has been broadminded to interpret women’s rights to cover sexual orientation and gender identity, shaping welcome space also for lesbians and transgender communities. A couple of years ago, it ruled in a seminal case concerning a South Asian country that an old colonial law prohibiting same sex relations between women was in breach of the CEDAW’s anti-discrimination provisions.

This is complemented well by Thailand’s most recent reform with a marriage equality law enabling same sex marriages. That openness to change needs to be well protected. If there are cracks in the nodes of multilateralism today, the advocacy to sustain and strengthen advances on the part of humanity needs to be astutely supported. The CEDAW remains important. The SDGs, especially their targets to eradicate gender-based violence and discrimination, are value added for global and national programmes propelling gender-transformative change.

To this should be added the need to realign global partnerships and alliances so that beyond the superpower realm, countries of the middle to higher power spectrum must cooperate more resolutely to overcome the assistance-cum-protection vacuum. Interlinking between the multilateral and the local, there was the visit to Thailand by the UN’s Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls at the end of 2024 whose advice needs to be better disseminated. This Group is one of the Special Procedures under the UN Human Rights Council emerging from the UN Charter, rather than from a human rights treaty such as the CEDAW.

What has this Working Group recommended to Thailand? Among a myriad number of findings, some are particularly significant. In the field of civil and political rights, it called upon the Thai authorities to address more the issue of gender-based violence and harassment against women politicians and other members of the public, together with more women’s gateways to the top of the power stratum. It expressed concern as regards Strategic Litigation against Public Participation (SLAPP) against women human rights defenders (WHRD), especially “the charges brought against at least 470 WHRDs for participating in pro-democracy activities since July 2020 and (it) urges the Government to refrain from suppressing their freedom of expression and assembly and to ensure their protection in accordance with international human rights standards.”

On the economic front, the Group called for more participation of women at the top of the employment ladder, supporting action to share the multiple loads of women in housework, child care, and workplace, with an assurance of equal wages. While recognizing a high proportion of women in education, it encouraged more space for women in the science and technology field. On family and social matters, it underlined discrepancies in the Thai nationality law and the challenge of early marriage among girls in parts of the country, coupled with polygamy in Southern Thailand. It can be added that there are no women religious judges and there remains the blockage from a male-dominated religious hierarchy. With regard to the new marriage equality law, it advised that if a person has reached the age of 18, permission from the parents to marry should not be needed.

The advent of climate change and environmental degradation takes its toll among women and the Group advised a gender-responsive approach to climate-related mitigation and adaptation. It then singled out the issue of intersectionality whereby women and girls are affected multiply via a variety of statuses and situations, including disabilities, security in Thailand’s Southern Provinces, women in detention, refugee, migrant and displaced women, ethnic minority and indigenous women, gender diverse and older women. Finally, it called for adjustments to ensure that the existing domestic violence law and the gender equality law comply with international standards.

The weakness of the former is that it is based on too much mediation without accountability, while the loophole of the latter is that it is constrained by national security and religious grounds. The country also needs a comprehensive anti discrimination law. Those propositions will doubtlessly be re-visited when the country next appears before the CEDAW Committee, tentatively in 2025. Ostensibly, women’s rights and roles as bridgebuilders of peace, human rights, democracy and sustainable development, connecting between multilateral/international standards and local wisdom, are at the heart of every society, without exception. And navigating the uncharted course of the future will invite not only dexterity and creativity but also empathy for all.

(The writer is Professor Emeritus at Chulalongkorn University and a UN Special Rapporteur under the UN Human Rights Council who wrote Thailand’s first report for the CEDAW.)