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A Detailed Look: East Asia and Pacific
East Asia and the Pacific is the second highest-ranking region in the overall 2012 SIGI ranking following Latin America and the Caribbean. The highest-ranked country in the region is the Philippines (12 out of 86), followed closely by Cambodia (13 out of 86). The lowest ranking country is Laos ranked at 49 out of 86. East Asia and the Pacific shows a strong performance in the Discriminatory Family Code, Restricted Physical Integrity and Restricted Resources and Entitlements sub-indices. The region’s weakest areas are the Son Bias and Restricted Civil Liberties sub-indices.
With the exception of Laos and Papua New Guinea, early marriage in the region is declining. Most countries provide women and men equal rights in exercising parental authority. The regional picture on inheritance rights is mixed, with countries such as Indonesia, Laos and Myanmar discriminating against women in this area. There were some improvements in responses to violence against women, for example in Fiji, the Crimes Decree of 2009 criminalised rape, the 2009 Domestic Violence Decree considers spousal rape a criminal offence and sexual harassment is also prohibited. However, spousal rape is still not criminalised in some countries and the implementation of laws remains a concern. Attitudes accepting domestic violence are prevalent in some countries in the region: 86% and 81% of women in Timor-Leste and Laos respectively agree that domestic violence is justified in some circumstances.
Son Bias is a particular issue of concern in the region although there has been improvement since 2009. Sex-ratio data indicates that missing women is a persistent problem, particularly in China and Papua New Guinea. Data on the share of males as the last child also indicates that son bias is strong in some parts of the region, including China, Vietnam and Laos.
Women’s political representation is low in the region: in Fiji, there are no national bodies of legislature to which women can be elected; in China, as of December 2009, women held 21% of the more than 2000 seats in the National Congress; in Vietnam, as of November 2011, women held 122 of 500 seats in national parliament, which fails to meet the 30% target set out in their 2010 national strategy. The trend is similar across all countries in the region. No country in the region has quotas at both national and sub-national levels.
