[last updated: 11 Aug 2008]
Profile
AWARE is a voluntary organization of men and women with three main areas of focus: Support, Research and Advocacy. Its vision is gender equity for all and it believes that this can be achieved by:
- Raising awareness of women’s and men’s rights and responsibilities
- Developing women’s full potential by encouraging full participation in public and private life
- Enhancing women’s knowledge and skills, and empowering them to make informed decisions.
Current Projects
At the moment, we are still in negotiations with AWARE regarding research on issues identified by AWARE’s ‘Women as Consumers’ sub-group. These include food safety, medical products and cosmetic products.
Commitment Level
Varies. Amount of time spent on research to be determined individually.
Previous projects
[2005/2006] Child sex tourism:
In semester 1, law school volunteers contributed research towards AWARE’s paper on the child sex tourism problem in Singapore. The organization submitted the paper titled ‘Beyond Borders: Sex with Children – Implementing Extra-territorial Legislation for Singaporeans’ to the Ministry of Home Affairs by the end of 2006. In semester 2, law students organized a series of exhibitions in the NUS libraries to highlight the social disease of commercial sexual exploitation of children within the region.
These advocacy efforts were timely and complemented A/P Ho Peng Kee’s discussion of the problem in Parliament in March. The Ministry of Home Affairs has promised to review and enact extra-territorial legislation to address the problem in the region in conjunction with its review of the Penal Code.
During the ALSA conference, the NUS Pro Bono Group invited speakers to share about child sex tourism and facilitated a discussion with the delegates on the issue. Plans are in the works to launch a regional campaign against child sex tourism.
Our recommendations have been incorporated into the Penal Code (Amendments) Bill (the new section 376C on Commercial Sex with minor under 18 outside Singapore) that was eventually passed.
[May-June 06] Sexual Harassment with Youth@AWARE:
This Youth@AWARE project aimed to investigate of the extent of sexual harassment at the workplace and on campus, as well as addressing society’s attitudes towards sexual harassment.
6 law students researched the law on sexual harassment in several jurisdictions and helped to redesign AWARE’s public survey on the prevalence of sexual harassment in Singaporean society.
[Semester 1, 2006/2007] AWARE Legal Clinics:
4 law students acted as translators at the AWARE legal clinics while taking the opportunity to observe the legal clinics that were held every 2nd Thursday of the month, 7:30-9:30pm at the AWARE office.
[March-June 2007] Trafficking Work Group
A group of volunteers researched on issues regarding child sex tourism from the perspective of the greater human trafficking problem. They researched on the definitions of “human trafficking” and the existing legislative instruments to combat the human trafficking problem in various jurisdictions. Their findings were then compiled into a report expounding and critiquing these legislative instruments.
Head of Project
NUS Pro Bono Group 