The indigenous women in Asia and in other regions of the world still lack the necessary knowledge and skills in asserting and making their rights a reality. To address this concern, Asian Indigenous Women’s Network and its partners Forest Peoples Programme and Tebtebba came up with a handbook on the International Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

Realizing Indigenous Women’s Rights: A Handbook on the CEDAW provides information on the rights of indigenous women giving details on CEDAW as the only specific instrument for women. The handbook also provides brief overview of other human rights mechanisms the indigenous women can avail of.

The book is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of the particular situations of indigenous women in Asia, including the particularities of violence they are experiencing with the prevailing and existing conditions in indigenous communities and territories. Chapter 2 deals with the principles of human rights and the international human rights instruments providing for the rights of women. It focuses on the CEDAW as a specific instrument for protecting the rights of women.

Chapter 3 presents the different mechanisms and possible options that indigenous women may take to seek redress for discrimination or violence. It provides specific information and tools that have been developed in aid of asserting human rights based on the mechanisms and procedures provided for under the CEDAW and other international human rights instruments. The final section, Chapter 4, provides a selection of previous jurisprudence from CEDAW that may assist in making arguments for future submissions to that body, or to national and other international legal instruments.