Page 6 - AEI Insights 2020 - Vol. 6, Issue 1

AEI Insights, Vol 6, Issue 1, 2020

the economic, social and cultural rights and declared in the AHRD, “Every person has the right
to work” (ASEAN, 2014).
In order to promote basic human rights of the vulnerable groups, ASEAN came up with specific
plans for women, the elderly and persons with disabilities. First of all, ASEAN decided to set
up the ASEAN commission on promotion and protector of the rights of women and children
(ACWC) in 2010. There are two inter-related objectives for the ACWC. The first objective is
to promote and protect human rights of women and children. The second objective is to achieve
gender equality and empowerment of women (ASEAN, 2018b). ACWC released a progress
report in 2019. In the report, the ACWC officially expressed its serious concern about gender
inequality in ASEAN countries. For example, there is a persistent gender gap in economic
participation among ASEAN countries. This is basically due to the gender gap in human capital
investment and labour market discrimination. Another problem in the labour market is that
women tended to dominate vulnerable employment, such as part-time employment, temporary
employment and informal employment.

Secondly, there is an increasing awareness that ASEAN countries have faced some problems
related to the ageing society such as sustainability of public pension system or lack of young
workers. In order to cope with this problem, ASEAN adopted the ASEAN strategic framework
on social welfare and development in 2015. In this framework, ASEAN will make efforts to
“promote regional cooperation initiative to support ASEAN countries to be well-prepared for
the ageing society”. More significantly, ASEAN has promoted the idea of “productive ageing”.
ASEAN declares that one of the main objectives in its strategic plan for the social welfare is
“healthy, active and productive ageing is promoted in an enabling and supportive environment”
(ASEAN, 2015).

Thirdly, ASEAN countries made serious commitment on the promotion of the disability rights
by ratifying the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD). In other
words, ASEAN countries would “recognise the rights of person with disability to work, on an
equal basis with other”. It also means that ASEAN countries would recognise the rights of a
person with disabilities to “the opportunity to gain a living by work freely chosen or accepted
in a labour market”. The ratification of the CRPD also would induce ASEAN countries to
“safeguard and promote the realisation of the right to work” and “to prohibit discrimination on
the basis of disability” (United Nations, 2006).

Despite its importance, the promotion of equal employment opportunities for the disadvantaged
workers is still an overlooked topic pertaining labour market. Thus, this paper examines how
ASEAN countries have made efforts to promote employment for women, older people and
persons with disabilities. There are two research questions in the current study. The first
research question is: what is the current status of employment among the disadvantaged
workers in ASEAN countries? The second research question is: what is the main labour policy
to promote employment for them?
This paper consists of five parts. Following this introductory part, the second section explains
the main characteristics of labour markets in the ASEAN countries. The third section discusses
the promotion of gender equality. The fourth section explains the promotion of productive
ageing by providing job opportunities for the elderly. The fifth section discusses the promotion
of employment among persons with disabilities. The final section consists of the conclusion.

Labour market condition and unemployment in ASEAN

The conditions and situations of a labour market could be examined by the relationship between
unemployment and inflation rates. For example, the unemployment rate indicates a balance

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