True freedom has to be won

(AS HUNDREDS of women activists and advocates begin to draft proposals for the implementing rules of the recently signed Republic Act No. 9710 or the Magna Carta of Women, Talk of the Town asked women leaders why the new law is an important achievement. The Magna Carta translates into law the spirit and letter of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw) and recognizes the rights and freedoms of all women, particularly the marginalized. The UN Cedaw was ratified in 1981 by at least 60 countries, including the Philippines. It became known as the International Bill of Rights for Women.)

WHEN I talk to a group of women about human rights, I start by asking the women about their lives and situations. Indigenous women would share about their being deprived of their ancestral lands, their displacement from their community because of a mining project, or about violence they experienced that they could not tell their family about.

Peasant women would bewail that they do not control the lands they farm, or that they could hardly eke out a living from farming because of low prices for their produce or high costs of inputs that leave them with very little income at the end of a harvest season.

Filipino women workers I met in Korea would share how they cannot report abuses of their employers because of threats of being terminated and sent back to the Philippines. These are some of the stories of abuse, disempowerment or discrimination that Filipino women have to tell.

The Magna Carta of Women (MCW) affirms that women are holders of and claimants to human rights. It clearly places on government shoulders the duty to ensure that the human rights of women are upheld and promoted. The three branches of government at all levels and government-owned and -controlled corporations assume these obligations under the MCW.

We women’s rights advocates must keep abreast and take advantage of positive advances in legal-standard setting in the international arena to support our advocacy and other strategies.

Under the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw), governments that have ratified the treaty like the Philippines have the obligation to eliminate discrimination against women and to take steps so that women, regardless of their status, condition or situation, have the opportunity to exercise and enjoy their rights.

Consistent with the Cedaw, the MCW requires that government consider the specific risks and particular contexts, especially of women in marginalized sectors or those in situations of conflict, when it adopts women-specific or general programs and measures.

The MCW in many respects is a model for adopting the Cedaw norms on equality and nondiscrimination in a country’s legislation. Women may have greater access to legal remedy because of the prohibition and definition of discrimination that the MCW provides. Human rights defenders may find additional legal bases in the law to demand accountability and end impunity for violations or denial of rights that many women continue to experience.

Achieving the goals of the MCW is an ambitious project. We women’s rights advocates should remain vigilant that the magna carta is implemented in accordance with the vision of the law. True freedom has to be won. –Eleanor C. Conda, Philippine Daily Inquirer

(Eleanor C. Conda, founding executive director of the Women’s Legal Bureau and a longtime women’s right advocate, is known for her work related to the Cedaw and human rights.)