Thursday, November 27, 2008 Women's rights are basic human rights: groups By Ernie N. Olson Jr.
THE right of a woman to her health is a right to life and therefore a basic human right that demands equal respect.
Two women's groups, Innabuyog-Gabriela and the Cordillera Women's Education Action Research Center (CWEARC), said this as they highlighted the rights of women to sexual and reproductive health during the celebration of the International Day to End Violence against Women last Wednesday.
"November 25 is the International Day to End Violence against Women. It was first celebrated by Latin American women to commemorate the death of the three courageous Mirabal sisters, more popularly called 'The Butterflies' on November 25, 1960, who fought to their deaths against the dictatorship of General Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic," they said.
On December 17, 1999, the United Nations General Assembly designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women or Idevaw.
Since then, it was also linked to the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, which ends on December 10.
"In line with the campaign for the continuous Idevaw campaign, the denial of the freedom of a woman to her own reproductive health is seen as violence against women. This basic human right is carried out as the focus of this year's Idevaw campaign," the two groups pointed out.
According to them, indigenous women leaders from Mindanao and the Cordillera shared their own respective experiences on particular cases of violence against women at the Innabuyog office.
This will be the opening of the 16-day campaign to end violence against women, they said.
They will have a forum on the socio-economic and political situation of Filipino women amidst the country's crisis on December 5 at 1 p.m.
