Gender equality now a national policy

AFTER we succeeded in convincing the government to set up Policewomen’s Desks in each precinct in 1994, our organization, Kalakasan, has been involved in organizing community-support mechanisms for victims of violence and abuse.

We thought that, with the passage of the Anti-Violence against Women and their Children Act of 2004, local government officials would take their own initiatives toward this. Unfortunately, years of negotiating with these authorities only proved that setting up women-friendly programs depended mainly on whether or not local chief executives recognized them.

With the passage of the Magna Carta of Women, such mechanisms and the training of local officials for their establishment have become mandatory.

Gender equality is now an official national policy. Programs must be created and resources have to be allocated at all levels of government for the empowerment and protection of women and girls.

Girls do not have to suffer lack of equal opportunities because of discriminatory religious beliefs, cultural traditions or unscientific superstitions. Women do not have to tolerate harassment and abuse in word or action, in any situation, just because of their gender.

Adolescent girls do not have to be deprived of education and reproductive health just because they were seduced, sexually molested and impregnated by family members, friends or strangers.

However, advocates of gender equality face the great divide between passage of the law and its implementation. Misogyny and patriarchy will not die easily. People in power will not deliver human rights on a silver platter to those they have oppressed for millennia.

The passage of the Magna Carta of Women signals the commencement of the next level of struggle for the realization of true equality among the genders in all aspects of our lives. We know it will not be an easy path, but we know it will be worth the fight. –Anna Leah Sarabia, Philippine Daily Inquirer

(Anna Leah Sarabia is the executive director of Kababaihan Laban sa Karahasan Foundation Inc. [Kalakasan].)