Ministry tries to campaign for gender equality

BANGKOK, Sept 10 (TNA) -- The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security organized a seminar to raise public awareness on the importance of gender equality as a new relevant law has not effectively promoted it since it was promulgated three years ago. The seminar took place at Prince Palace Hotel in Bangkok and about 500 people from relevant organizations in the government and private sectors attended it. Opening the seminar, Gen Anantaporn Karnjanarat, Minister of Social Development and Human Security, said Thailand adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1985 and a law on gender equality was promulgated on September 9, 2015. However, he said, cases of sexual discrimination were happening. He cited that women were not recruited to work with the excuse that they would be pregnant and have babies and those who appeared different from their birth sexes were not protected and faced discrimination at work. The problems continued because the society did not know there were the gender equality act and a fund to promote gender equality, Gen Anantaporn said. Even though knowing about the act and the fund, victims did not dare to file their complaints because they had not enough support, the minister said. Besides, some people misunderstood that the law applied only to some groups of people, Gen Anantaporn said. “The awareness must be promoted so that everyone has access to rights and benefits equally. The awareness will be expanded through networking in this seminar that includes discussions on the promotion of gender equality in line with the gender equality act and sub-group meetings on sexual discrimination,” the minister said. (TNA)