by Chong Jen Hui, Advocate and Solicitor, Steven Thiru & Sudhar Partnership
The 37th LAWASIA Conference 2024 is taking place from 13 to 15 Oct 2024 at Hilton Kuala Lumpur.
The afternoon segment of the “Human Rights & Rule of Law” stream of the 37th LAWASIA Conference 2024 began with a session on women’s rights that aimed to address the issue of gender equality in an increasingly connected world. Angela Lin, an Attorney-at-Law from Taiwan moderated the session which featured a panel of distinguished women in law.
Angela Lin started the session by presenting statistics of male and female law students, newly-admitted lawyers, and judges in Taiwan. The data showed that there was no significant gap between the figures in all three categories.
The first speaker, Jumanah Behbehani, Head of International Legal Organizations Centre, Kuwait Bar Association, said that innovative solutions are required to drive significant progress in order to promote gender equality. She suggested various technology-centric solutions such as artificial-intelligence-powered systems in the field of human resources that can help eliminate unconscious gender bias in the hiring and promotion processes, and artificial-intelligence-driven legal research and case management that will streamline the relevant tasks and increase efficiency for women lawyers who may be struggling with work-life balance.
The second speaker, Dato’ Mary Lim Thiam Suan, former Federal Court Judge in Malaysia and currently the Director of the Asian International Arbitration Centre, shared her views on women in the legal profession and the judiciary. She shared her concern that while there are as many women as there are men in the public legal service, the issue lies in the positions held by women, as women are often assigned tasks that are related to advisory, drafting, and research; whereas men are trusted with prosecution. She remarked that equality must also be reflected in how talent is utilised and emphasised that when assessing gender equality, it is also important to evaluate the duties and rules that are assigned to women.
The third speaker, Puja Kapai, is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong. She spoke in-depth of the relevance of a diverse legal profession that can help legal professionals identify the justice gap. She explained that legal professionals must have the capacity to integrate their skills with the understanding of the workings of life in unique contexts and diverse communities, as this is crucial to enable a shift in perspectives and thereby generate incremental justice in new directions. Associate Professor Puja Kapai recommended that the approaches that could be taken towards fostering diversity and inclusion in the legal sector include regular data collection and community building.
The fourth speaker, Melissa Pang who was the Past President of The Law Society of Hong Kong, started her presentation by concurring with Associate Professor Puja Kapai and shared the sentiment that data and discussion are essential in promoting gender equality. Melissa Pang then shared that in Hong Kong, there are lesser women in senior positions despite there being more women in law school and also in junior positions. She explained that this was because women often found it hard to balance their professional and family lives, and therefore having a flexible working arrangement was an advantage for female lawyers which hinders potential promotions. She observed that gender equality was key to the success of an organisation as it would allow an organisation to better address the demands of clients. She shared that the Hong Kong Stock Exchange amended its rules to mandate that there must be at least one woman director on the board of companies, which will take effect at the end of 2024.
The final speaker was the Vice President of the Vietnam Bar Federation Nguyen Thi Quynh Anh, who observed that while there is a balanced number of female and male lawyers, there is a stark disparity in figures at executive positions in Vietnam where out of over 60 local bar associations, only four has women chairpersons. She emphasised that change must take place at three levels, namely individual, institutional, and governmental. At the individual level, training and mentorship programmes ought to focus on gender equality issues while at the institutional level, law firms and legal organisations should adopt gender assessment policies that can provide equal opportunities for career advancement and flexible working arrangements. Lastly, at the governmental level, policies on gender equalities must be implemented and individuals must be held accountable to effect meaningful change relating to gender equality.
The panel discussion concluded with a question-and-answer session. In response to a question on whether justice can only be done through advocacy by women, Associate Professor Puja Kapai explained that to be a feminist legal professional is to understand that substantial justice is not just about equality but also about diverse life experiences, and therefore one can be a feminist legal professional regardless of gender.