Position Paper of
HOMENET SOUTHEAST ASIA
for the 12ths ASEAN SUMMIT , February 2007
Towards Human Security in the ASEAN Community
Through Solidarity and Engagement of All Workers, Informal and Formal,
Women and Men
The theme of 12th ASEAN summit is “one caring
and sharing community.” Such a vision is anchored on the concept
of “community”, which cannot be just governments talking
to each other across negotiating tables. Obviously, the ASEAN peoples
must be involved, especially those who comprise the working majority,
and are most vulnerable to decisions made not only by their governments
but also by other powers exercising indirect control over their
lives. Engagement and solidarity must first occur among organizations
of working people who make prosperity possible--trade unions, cooperatives,
homebased and other informal workers’ networks, migrant groups,
associations of farmers and fisherfolk, grassroots women’s
organizations. Through their involvement, democratic processes become
dynamic and inclusive, breathing life into an otherwise cold and
abstract notion of “community” at the regional level.
Most of the employed in ASEAN are workers in the
informal economy. Among them are homebased workers, vendors, stall
sellers, waste recyclers, small transport drivers, construction
workers, etc. Many of them are women who aside from having to work
to earn a pittance to ensure survival, also shoulder the burden
of housework, child care, and community service.
In the whole of Asia, informal employment provides
the majority (65 percent) of non-agricultural employment. In the
member countries of Homenet Southeast Asia, the percentages are
78 percent for Indonesia, 72 percent for Philippines, and 51 percent
for Thailand, according to the ILO. In addition, women are particularly
involved in informal employment (averaging 65 percent of all workers
in non-agricultural employment); when agriculture is added in, women’s
share of informal employment goes way up, since women tend to be
very much involved in agricultural work.
The informal economy has been growing due to the
combined effects of liberalization, deregulation, and privatization
which altogether drove out millions of workers from the formal economy
(24 million, according to the ILO, in the aftermath of the Asian
financial crisis). At the same time, the informal economy serves
as the bottom end of the production ladder, providing cheap and
unprotected labor vulnerable to exploitation while firms save on
costs by retaining a small core of permanent and regular workers.
The informal economy is also highly gendered, consisting
mostly of women who were among the first to be displaced from formal
work as globalization progressed. But women have also been the mainstay
of the informal sector even before the onslaughts of globalization
since informal work (e.g., homebased work) is compatible with their
reproductive work (child care, domestic chores), and since their
status as secondary or supplemental earners often deprive them of
opportunities to find formal employment.
The Challenge of Human Security Within
ASEAN
A caring and sharing community is one that must
strive for freedom from fear and want. All human beings wish to
be safe from harm, to be protected from risks, and to be assured
not only basic needs but also basic rights. Structures of governance
can only be stable if the citizens being governed are secure. There
can be no national or regional security without human security.
There can be no community among those who are afraid of each other
and of the future. But in many parts of the ASEAN, many are adversely
affected by various forms of insecurity
Economic insecurity is a constant
threat to workers in South East Asia who have in many cases no labor
protection and no social protection. Formal workers under flexibilization
and contractualization are likewise vulnerable to job loss; migrant
workers can be easily terminated and deported.
Homebased workers know that their job orders can
suddenly end with no other alternative in sight, or that their savings
can easily be wiped out by a sudden death or illness against which
they have little or no provision. Those at the bottom of the value
or production chain in the garments industry have been hit by foreign
competition and the influx of second-hand clothing in both the domestic
and the export markets.
In insular Southeast Asia, those who are in food
production and processing also feel the negative effects of unfair
trade. Vegetable raisers find their markets contracting with the
influx of cheap and often smuggled vegetable items from abroad.
Poultry and hog producers are disadvantaged by imported chicken
parts and pork dumped at unbelievably low prices in the local markets.
The prevalence of chemical-based agriculture and animal husbandry,
which is propagated by transnational suppliers of farm inputs and
feeds, also does irreparable harm to the environment as well as
to the health of consumers.
It should be recognized as well that economic insecurity
is a particularly critical concern for women workers.
Because of their irregular earnings and the fact that they may have
to drop out of the workforce periodically due to their assigned
domestic responsibilities, as well as their relative lack of access
to education, information, and rights to land and other assets,
women are in a very vulnerable position even in the best of times.
In the worst of times – in case of death, divorce, desertion,
chronic illness, and other life reversals – women and their
families are often left with nothing at all.
Homebased workers in particular are prey to other
forms of insecurity as well. They suffer from health insecurity
arising from malnutrition (as food security is eroded ), lack of
medical care and social health insurance , occupational health and
safety hazards, physical and mental stress due to their multiple
burdens, HIV-AIDS pandemic, etc. They know how it is to be perennial
victims of environmental insecurity brought about
by floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, pollution,
pesticide use, haze, etc. Their countries are plagued with political
insecurity due to terrorist and counter-terrorist attacks,
armed conflicts, ethnic conflicts, the rise of religious fundamentalisms
(which also has adverse effects on women’s control or sovereignty
over their bodies) , actual martial rule or threat of martial rule,
and the human rights violations associated with these. At home,
at work and in the streets, they face personal insecurity
in the form of domestic violence, sexual harassment, etc.
Human security strategies should
therefore underpin all attempts at regional integration and cooperation
in ASEAN. These strategies should have two goals: to protect people
from risks and dangers, and to empower them to achieve their potential
and participate in decision making.
In ASEAN, there is talk about social protection,
but this should go beyond the narrow concept of expanding social
security and health insurance coverage, which still excludes majority
of informal workers. To be truly inclusive, social security and
health insurance should be universal, and governments must play
a decisive role in realizing this. In the region, Thailand has shown
that this is possible through the 30 baht universal health coverage
scheme.
Beyond formal social security and health insurance
mechanisms, there should be an integrated approach to social protection
which takes into consideration the following factors: an income
that is sufficient to cover basic needs; the ability to secure sufficient
food for self and family; access to sufficient income, food and
health services so that optimal occupational and reproductive health
status can be secured; freedom from violence in the home, workplace
and community; a secure place in which work can be done safely and
productively, a level of education that will enable economic participation
in society; opportunities to reproduce and change skills in accordance
with changes in the market; opportunities to work and to pursue
a career; and for the self employed, access to capital for enterprise
development and sustainability, as well as market demand for the
commodity or service.
Human Security Anchored on Labor Rights
and Women’s Rights
It is our position that human security cannot be
realized if it is not anchored on human rights. Although there is
recognition that human rights are inalienable and indivisible, and
that political, civil, economic, social, reproductive, and sexual
rights mutually reinforce each other, there is need to emphasize
labor rights and women’s rights given the context of workers
in the informal economy within ASEAN.
We support the campaign for an ASEAN Social Charter
seeking to ensure the core labor standards which lie at the heart
of the decent work principles embodied in key ILO Conventions
on freedom of association , and the elimination of forced labor,
child labor, and discrimination in employment. As a network of primarily
women homebased workers, we also urge the immediate ratification
by ASEAN-member countries of the
ILO Convention on Home Work. (ILC 177).
Most homeworkers have no written contracts with
definite employers, suffer from substandard wages even while they
shoulder the cost of work space and utilities , lack social protection,
access to training and other resources, and are vulnerable to occupational
health and safety hazards. Most homeworkers are not organized and
if they are, they have little voice and participation in decision-making
bodies in charge of their concerns.
ILC 177 seeks to address these realities and uplift
the conditions of homeworkers so that they can undergo the same
treatment, exercise the same rights based at the very least on the
core labor standards of decent work, and receive the same entitlements
workers in the formal and other sectors are legally enabled to enjoy.
ILC 177 would strengthen homeworkers’ organizations and encourage
the unorganized to organize themselves because it emphasizes the
homeworkers’ right to establish or join organizations of their
own choosing and to participate in the activities of such organizations
. Finally, ILC 177 would redound to the improvement of women homeworkers’
status through access to social protection, better working conditions,
and recognition and respect for their rights as women and as workers.
Human Security Based on Fair Trade and
Sustainable Human Development
In the face of the challenge posed by human security
concerns in ASEAN, informal workers have attempted to be involved
in advocacies that seek to transform the macro-economic environment
underlying the economic and other insecurities enveloping their
lives. They have issued position papers and joined demonstrations
on trade-related issues. They have been active in various forms
of fair trade advocacy in collaboration with trade unions, business
groups, and civil society organizations.
They believe that trade policies, programs and
mechanisms should result not only in profit and prosperity for those
who have the means to maximize their benefits through global commerce.
These should also promote sustainable human development as well
as the economic and social advancement of women and men. These should
also strengthen, not weaken social policies, programs and mechanisms
that defend, protect, and fulfill the human rights of all people,
especially the most vulnerable and marginalized. These should also
recognize and support processes which aim to empower the disempowered,
by eliminating barriers and disadvantages based on gender, race,
employment status and other inequalities.
Through their own exposure and discussions, informal
worker leaders in several Southeast Asian countries have evolved
their own conception of fair trade. To them, fair
trade means changes in macroeconomic policies (including tariff
reform, stopping smuggling and dumping of cheap foreign products)
to give an even chance to local producers to have their rightful
share of the domestic market. Fair trade means enhancing sustainability
of production by making use of locally available resources, catering
to basic community needs, and safeguarding the environment. Fair
trade means ensuring workers’ rights to just remuneration,
job security, social protection, and safe working conditions. Fair
trade means promoting gender equity through recognition of women’s
work, greater equality in the division of labor, and stronger participation
of women in decision-making.
In the face of the increasingly exclusionary processes
under which trade and other economic deals are forged, we call for
openness and transparency in ASEAN processes. The interests of women
and working people, especially those in the informal economy, need
to be articulated, recognized, and carried forward. A genuine ASEAN
community striving for human security is anchored on fair and balanced
participation in development processes as well as on an equitable
distribution of opportunities, resources, and benefits. Only then
can ASEAN be truly relevant to the majority of its citizenry |
