|
Monday, March 27, 2006
Count women’s rights among state’s targets
IN celebration of Women’s Month, various groups are calling for the inclusion of women’s rights in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the United Nations (UN).
The MDGs is a global movement that aims to reduce poverty and human deprivation by 2015. Its areas of concern include education, environment, health and poverty.
The Philippines is among the 190 countries under the UN that have vowed to pursue the MDGs.
But the local chapter of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women Cedaw) said that while legislators support women’s rights, there remains a need for “affirmative action,” such as penalties for discrimination against women.
Discrimination is described as “any distinction, inclusion and restriction mainly on the basis of sex.”
Lihok Pilipina and Cedaw aim to incorporate this in the MDGs. The Philippine Government gives a report on measures it has taken to comply with treaty obligations every four years.
Lawyer Alice Morada of Lihok Pilipina recently gave a seminar to students of the University of the Philippines (UP)-Cebu College to discuss, among other topics, discrimination against women in the workplace.
“Companies prefer hiring men because women, especially those who are married, will have to go on maternity leaves,” she told the students during the seminar.
One of the issues women”s groups are also pushing is population and reproductive health.
President Arroyo “digs her heels in against reproductive health plans for women in the country,” Morada lamented.
Lihok Pilipina, Cedaw and other women’s groups also want to bring the issue to the grassroots level. (JGA)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 27, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
