BANGKOK – Two prominent Shinawatra female politicians highlighted International Women’s Day (March 8), urging people to be aware of the violence and discriminatory treatment of women in Thai society.
Yingluck Shinawatra, the first female Prime Minister of Thailand who is now living in exile, posts on social media that 30,000 Thai women each year report they face domestic violence while 87.4 percent do not report, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
She adds during her time as prime minister, the government established a One Stop Crisis Centre under the Public Health Ministry to assist women, children, the elderly and the physically handicapped people and she hopes it is still useful in integrating works from various agencies.
“In the end, if we value ourselves, we won’t let anyone devalue us. Happy International Women’s Day ka,” Yingluck wrote.
Meanwhile, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, leader of the Pheu Thai Party, joined the stage at UNESCAP, Thailand’s United Nations organisation, to convey her vision for women’s roles in politics.
Female Pheu Thai Party representatives, including Ms. Puangpetch Chunlead, Minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office; Ms. Jiraporn Sinthuprai, Roi Et MP and Deputy Leader; and Ms. Chayika Wongnaphachan, Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, were also present.
Yingluck’s niece, who entered politics after her father and her aunt delivered a speech on the topic “Investing in Women in Politics to Accelerate SDGs,” said that she would like to consider herself a woman who has been invested in politics, as the goal of this talk aims at.
“In recent years, the world has progressed a lot more towards the stronger rights of us, women, thanks to the SDGs advocacy by the UN and its partners worldwide, including Thailand. However, progress does not equate perfection and many women in Thailand still suffer from unfairness in workplace, discrimination, domestic violence, or gender bias. This has to change,” said Paetongtarn.
As the female leader of a political party, she said she always holds the significance of investing women in politics in mind. In the last election, the party gained quite a number of female MPs, which amounted to 20% of our all-elected seats, which is above the average number of female Thai MPs in parliament.
“Yet, we know this is not good enough. Hence, in the next election, we aim to reach the global average proportion of women in parliaments, which is 26.5%. Also, we will sustain our tradition of gender equality in the party as the model for all political parties in Thailand.”
Paetongtarn explained her party’s policy to promote women’s rights and bridge the inequality gap via various tangible policies, such as the Women Empowerment Fund, the One Family One Soft Power or OFOS Policy, the Marriage Equality Bill, and the Free Cervical Cancer Vaccination.
Last but not least, the Ending Violence Against Women Policy as Thailand has reigned as one of the highest rates of violence against women, with 30,000 cases per year, and at least 7 Thai women are being subjected to physical, mental, or social abuse per day.
“Soon, the Pheu Thai Party will propose the Family Protection Bill to stop this unfairness and ill-treatment towards women, granting them the political ground to stand firm as proud women like me today,” she stated.
