Sexual Rights, War & the United Nations

After having worked on women’s issues for the past twenty five years, or since 1985, the way to go from here is to write about one’s life work. I have started this documentation of my life’s work two years ago when I produced, wrote the script & hosted a weekly television feature on women’s issues in my television show Women’s Work @ 23 that was shown in Skycable Channel 28. So, in this space, I will be churning out tales, stories & lessons learned over the years as my tribute to women in the hope of making this world a better place. That, I think is a very good reason to write 500 to 800 words each time from hereon.

My maiden blog, is about sexual rights, the Mindanao war & the United Nations.

One of our stark realizations in my work with women is that the United Nations (UN), in its international human rights instruments, is not yet itself clear in its ‘discourse’ on sexuality and human rights. The training courses we give to our social development partners include how to promote women’s rights through legal reform at various levels including the United Nations, thus, it is crucial to actually engage at the level of UN structures and processes.

So, I participated in the 49th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW) in New York City as a representative of PILIPINA Legal Resources Center.

This UN CSW meeting is also called Beijing + 10 meeting because this event held in 2005 is also a review of the Beijing Platform for Action that was drafted during the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. In this UN meeting, it was important to be working with other women’s groups and there were daily morning meetings of various women’s groups aside from the official UN sessions. These caucuses which we called ‘safe and free spaces’ for discussion of sexual & bodily rights were under the auspices of the International Women’s Health Coalition, WEDO, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Coalition for Sexual & Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies, etc.

In above meetings, I was part of the Anti-Trafficking core group. The NGO suggested text for draft US resolution on Anti-Trafficking was discussed during the meeting of the Philippine official & NGO delegation in New York at the UN cafeteria organized by the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) of the Office of the President of the Philippines.

One of the important outputs of our daily meetings of our Coalition is a statement signed by twenty members entitled “ A Call By The Coalition For Sexual & Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies On The 10th Anniversary Of The Fourth World Conference”. This statement was also read in one of the official UN sessions as part of the NGO intervention. This is an example of how NGOs and their advocacies can be part of a UN session’s agenda.

AThe Mindanao Context is shared in an International Forum

The Philippine delegation from Davao City led by our center’s co- founder, Ms. Irene Santiago, organized a forum on Gender Issues in Post-Conflict Situations at the UN. This forum before official delegates of governments & NGO delegates to the UN CSW meeting was organized by the Mindanao Commission on Women, a Philippine group with which my center is working with in its research & peace project.

The forum determined the following points for any peace agenda as highlighted by the speakers:

a) In the post peace agreement scenario, reconciliation, rehabilitation, and reconstruction programs will be necessary to deal with the effects of violent conflict.

b) The effects of violent conflict include destruction of the basis of livelihood and social capital, the absence of basic services, the breakdown or weakness of governance and institutions and the pervasive distrust and fear among various groups.

c) It is thus, crucial that as the state and rebel groups continue the process of peace negotiations, gender issues and human rights are highlighted as an advocacy program to address the effects of violent conflict.

d) While women are victims, they must also be seen as active agents of social change and as such any peace accord must thus take into consideration the leadership and participation of women in the reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction process.

e) By defining the roles of women and men can play in peace building and peace maintenance, while ensuring consensus around policy and program priorities, threats to social stability are lessened.

How engagement at the UN level helps shape discourses at the national level and vice versa

Through this UN engagement, one finds that there is a need for a definition of trafficking in the Philippines that is faithful to the principle of bodily autonomy and integrity and this is a case for a legal reform project.

Some of the issues raised against Anti-trafficking as espoused by the official Philippine delegates at this UN CSW session include, among others, that poor countries are the senders of prostituted women (choice is a fallacy for poor women) while countries in European Union like the Netherlands ( where prostitution is legal) look at prostitution as an industry. This is a microcosm of an existing divide among the so-called abolitionists (those advocating for the abolition for all forms of prostitution) and the stance of the activists for sex workers rights. The stance of the Philippine government and the NGO suggested alternative formulation on Anti-Trafficking was proposed to be addressed at many levels. Aside from addressing the root causes that put women and girls at risk of being trafficked, one level is legal reform. In this sense, my organization, which is a legal resources center working on legal reform, plays a role. Our current law on Anti-Trafficking still very much equates anti -trafficking with prostitution (even if our law mentions other forms, prostitution is very prominent) and our anti-trafficking law does not distinguish between forced and voluntary movement of persons. Also, all forms of prostitution, including voluntary prostitution is a crime. In short, Philippine policy is still in the abolition of all forms of prostitution mode. Similarly, the Philippine NGO community is still divided as to various forms of intervention in relation to prostitution. The need for a definition of trafficking that is faithful to the principle of bodily autonomy & integrity and which could ultimately be advocated through a legal reform project must start with organizing support around sexual rights as human rights.

International Advocacy on Sexuality & Human Rights & National Budgets

It was worthwhile working with groups like the International Women’s Health Coalition in projects that address the fact that international human rights is not yet clear in its discourse on sexuality and in many issues, such as anti-trafficking, abortion, prostitution, sex workers rights, reproductive rights, rights of the girl child, etc. Work of this nature is important for defining and shaping of the contour of official national policy on sexual & reproductive rights.

This 49th United Nations Commission of the Status of Women Session was important in exhorting states not only to set laws and policies for women but more importantly, that states agreed to appropriate more budgets for women’s programs in various countries on the ground.