In Equal Measure

As the Singapore Committee for UN Women celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, Hashirin Nurin Hashimi looks at some of the game-changing moments and milestones in its work towards women’s empowerment and gender equality.

- Hashirin Nurin Hashimi

A game changer is an event, idea or procedure that effects a significant shift in the current way of doing or thinking about something. Going by this dictionary definition, the Singapore Committee for UN Women, a non-profit organisation working towards women’s empowerment and gender equality, is a game changer in its own right for it has hit several important and significant advocacy milestones since its founding in 1997.

For one, thanks to the efforts of the organisation and its partners in raising awareness on child prostitution in the region, the Singapore government amended Section 376 of the Penal Code in 2008 to criminalise commercial sex with a minor under 18 not just in Singapore, but also overseas. Then, as a reflection of the Day Off Campaign it launched in 2008 with two non-government organisations dedicated to assisting low-wage migrant workers, a legislation mandating a weekly rest day for foreign domestic workers took effect in 2013. The Singapore Committee for UN Women also contributed to a National Plan of Action against Trafficking in Persons (TIP), which guided Singapore’s TIP strategy from 2012 to 2015, when the country put in place its first standalone anti-trafficking legislation.