UN CEDAW Urges Philippines to Speed Up Legislation aimed at erasing stereotypes
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (UN CEDAW) urged the Government of the Philippines to speed up the passage of legislation needed to erase sexual stereotypes and to strengthen efforts to combat violence against women as it considered the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports (covering the period between December 1995 and December 2003) of the Philippines to the CEDAW last August 15, 2006 at the UN Headquarter in New York,USA.
Expert members of the Committee also urged the Philippine delegation to move pending legislation, including the Magna Carta for Women, now in the final stages of review in the House of Representatives, It would commit the State to recognize, affirm and intensify its efforts to guarantee the rights and fundamental freedoms of women, especially those in marginalized sectors. Once a similar bill was filed in the Philippine Senate, the two would eventually become the country’s Gender Equality Law.
Committee Chairperson Hanna Beate Schopp-Schilling said more legislation was needed in addition to laws approved over the past decade which included the anti-rape law of 1997, the law which expanded rape from being a crime against chastity to a crime against a person; the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, which created policies and penalties to stop trafficking in persons; and the Anti-Violence against Women and Their Children Act of 2004, which tried to protect women and children from physical, psychological and economic abuses in the context of marital, dating or common-law relationships.
The Philippine delegation assured the CEDAW that the government was working diligently to revise codes and laws that were incompatible with the Convention and which discriminated against women. These included pushing for the passage of the following laws or revision of existing laws: marital infidelity removing the distinction of adultery for women and concubinage for men; the gender balance and local sectoral representation, which would assure representation of women in important decisionmaking bodies; and the code of muslim personal law, among others.
The Philippine delegation was headed by Esperanza I. Cabral, Secretary of Social Welfare and Development, Bayani S. Mercado, Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of the Philippines to the United Nations, Myrna T. Yao, Chairperson of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW); Ethelyn P. Nieto, Under-Secretary, Department of Health; Luzviminda G. Padilla, Under-Secretary, Labor and Employment; Amaryllis T. Torres, Commissioner, NCRFW; Evelyn S. Dunuan, Commissioner, NCRFW; Emmeline L. Verzosa, Executive Director,NCRFW; Marie Yvette L. Banzon, Third Secretary, Permanent Mission of the Philippines; Aurora Javate de Dios, non-governmental organization representative and CEDAW expert; Felix V. de Leon, Jr., Attache, Permanent Mission of the Philippines.
As signatory to the Convention, the Philippines reports to CEDAW every four years on the various measures it has undertaken to ensure that women enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms. The preparation of the report is facilitated by the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW), the Philippine machinery for the advancement of women.