«International Standards of Women’s Rights: Problems of Ensuring in East Asia»
Students Name: Matviichuk Oksana Tarasivna
Qualification Level: magister
Speciality: International Relations
Institute: Institute of the Humanities and Social Sciences
Mode of Study: full
Academic Year: 2023-2024 н.р.
Language of Defence: французька
Abstract: The issue of effective enforcement of women’s rights is on the agenda of all members of the global community. Although women’s rights have evolved from total discrimination and devaluation to the systematization of international standards and their implementation in national legislation, none of the countries in the world fully enjoys them. East Asia is no exception. Despite the rapid economic development, adherence to the policy of implementing democratic and liberal ideals, and the popularity of East Asian culture, states in this region, such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, are faced with obstacles to the realization of women’s rights, which leads to destabilization of the social order, deepening of gender stereotypes of women’s roles, and restriction of their aspirations and freedoms. Study object - ensuring women’s rights in East Asian countries. Scope of research - peculiarities of guaranteeing, implementation and enforcement of women’s rights in East Asian countries on the example of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The goal of the research is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the current state of the realization of women’s rights in the countries of East Asia in accordance with international standards, identifying problems that prevent their provision and guarantee, as well as develop recommendations for improving the state of women’s rights in this region. First of all, it has been determined that currently there is a wide basis of international legal acts and mechanisms that ensure the compliance and guarantee of women’s rights. The fundamental agreement for most countries of the world, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women 1979. It was found that these countries have specific features of implementing the policy aimed at ensuring women’s rights, such as the presence of pro-women’s organizations that lobby legislative issues of national political forces and raise problems that may remain ignored by the state authorities, and the existence of specialized bodies responsible for promoting women’s rights, such as the Ministry of Gender and Family Affairs in Korea, the Gender Equality Bureau under the Cabinet of Ministers of Japan, and the Gender Equality Committee of the Executive Yuan in Taiwan. At the same time, Taiwan stands out for the effectiveness and efficiency of its women’s/gender policy, as well as for its active international cooperation with specialized organizations in this area, despite its complex legal status. Among the achievements, it is worth mentioning, among other things, the steady process of reformation of the legal framework in the researched countries to face new challenges, improvement of women’s access and opportunities in accordance with gender indicators, such as access to higher positions, education, etc. Implementation of women’s rights policies is valuable for their development and intensive implementation, as well as for coordinating international and regional cooperation to improve the process of guaranteeing women’s rights. Pro-women’s movements and civic activism are a catalyst for identifying gaps in women’s rights and helping the authorities to pay attention to them. As for the weaknesses, the main ones are the cultural and historical context of the region in the form of the established tradition of confucianism, the lack of funding for the specialized bodies, ignorance of politicians about the specifics of their work and devaluation of the problem of ensuring women’s rights, which destabilizes the social order and the weak mechanism for proving the fact of sexual violence. It is shown that the main obstacles and challenges in the process of guaranteeing women’s rights are directly related to both internal and foreign policy factors. It is determined that the reproductive role of women is subject to discrimination due to the «ageing» of nations and demographic requirements for women to meet the goals of increasing the population, and the development of cybercrime significantly undermines the safety of women and girls and, as a result, raises the issue of sexual harassment and violence. The research highlighted the further development of the situation with women’s rights in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and offered a number of recommendations, including: a review by international organizations of their enforcement and monitoring mechanisms to ensure mandatory compliance with legal obligations, further reform of the domestic legal framework, development of cultural and educational activities and promotion of gender equality and combating stereotypes, creation of educational projects and launch of programs to promote the empowerment of women and girls. Key words: women’s rights, East Asia, gender equality, CEDAW, discrimination. References. Kolomiiets, Yu. (2019). Prava zhinok k obiekt mizhnarodnoho zakhystu. Pravookhoronna funktsiia derzhavy: teoretyko-metodolohichni ta istoryko-pravovi problemy. 92-101. Brysk A. (2021). Constructing rights in Taiwan: the feminist factor, democratization, and the quest for global citizenship. The Pacific Review. 34:5, 837 – 870. 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