On 29 November at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC), the Women Human Rights Defenders Collective in Thailand organised an event to mark the 2022 International Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) Day. Representatives from 19 community-based networks gathered and discussed the importance and value of work contributed by mothers and caregivers at home as part of a campaign to demand a constitutional amendment on “care income” and to raise public awareness of the value of care work and how it should be paid. It was also a chance for movements and alliances to explore the possibilities to develop recommendations and action plans to advocate for the issues through political parties and the public. 

During a panel discussion titled “An initial dialogue on CARE INCOME: Value and remuneration of the work by mothers and caregivers”. Thanta Laovilwanyakul from the Empower Foundation and a member of the WHRD Collective said “Women are the largest population in Thailand, represent the largest voter turnout and are tax-payers. Therefore, it is important that the government must remunerate women who work as mothers and caregivers in the family. Thailand has signed the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995 which indicates that homework by women must be accounted for its economic value. Yet after more than two decades have passed, nothing has happened.” 

The Women Human Rights Defenders Collective in Thailand is comprised of community and grassroots women human rights defenders representing nineteen different sectors ranging from indigenous women, women with disability, sex workers, refugee women to women land rights defenders. They work to collectively empower and improve the rights of women in Thailand.

For more information visit www.facebook.com/WHRDPOWER