UNITE to End Violence against Women and empower them ~ My Opinion

March 8. 2010, International Women’s Day – Women’s Right and Health is always part of my advocacy. Issues such as domestic violence which women are mostly involve, gender inequality, concerns on hunger and poverty and maternal health, these are the things that I am obviously advocating on my blog and here are my views on issues concerning the women.

Domestic Violence – Sometimes it is synonymous with a term family problem. Domestic violence is rampant in the society for both develop and developing country, based from the data posted from the http://www.saynotoviolence.org a website created by United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) from the women population around the world 70% from it had experience physical or sexual violence from men in their lifetime – the majority by husbands, intimate partners or someone they know. Sadly those issues remain inside four corners of their house, not home. And few had the chance to escape or reported this kind of violence while others died in vain thinking it will just pass or ashamed of what people might say about their family. These things happen in countries like the Philippines where women are beaten to death heir drunk husbands and live in partners. There are institutions and non-government organizations that handles this but no one dares to end this kind of violence, because of fear of what humiliation might bring this to their family, there is a usual mindset that domestic violence is “just” a family problem, but the truth is domestic violence that is a social issue that must be solve by proper information and letting women knows their rights and to be guided by women based organizations that will safeguard their rights.

Gender Inequality – Maybe others find it unbelievable that there are still issues on inequality on this kind of generation and honestly gender discrimination is still rampant in the society. According to the article posted by the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) during the 1995’s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, there are 189 countries solidly recognized gender equality and the empowerment of women as vital for development, peace and human rights, as they adopt the Beijing Declaration. Beijing Declaration (http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/declar.htm) contains of recognizing the role of women in the society and their status advanced to the same status of men and becoming aware that aside from the children, women is also directly affected on the issue of poverty. In line with the United Nation Millennium Development Goal, Gender Inequality is on number 3 where inequality or gender disparity affects women in their quest to avail education.

Women on Poverty and Hunger – According to World Food Program, women are the front liners who fights hunger, with the WFP solidarity campaign they emphasize women plays a vital role in combating hunger and poverty. According to Isatou Jallow, chief of WFP's Gender Unit, she says the women has the important role in fighting hunger, in many countries women are the foundation of agricultural sectors and food systems, making up the bulk of agricultural laborers and they are the one who guarantees food security in their homes. There are 60% are chronically hungry people in the world but based on experience Jallow says that food that was given to women goes directly to the moth of the hungry child instead of them. Watch the video created by WFP on their campaign for women the launching of their new solidarity page on their website http://wfp.org/women.

Women on Maternal Health – One of the most critical topics I am handling on my advocacy campaigns. Maternal health falls on MDG number 5 that highlights the health of women who bares child. Based on the UNDP report on Maternal Health, in 2008, an estimated 3.4 million Filipino women became pregnant. 54% of these women (about 1.9 million) did not want a child so soon or at all (Guttmacher/UPI 2009). But the sad part on the concerns of maternal health that there are incidents that some mothers died during pregnancy due to shortage on health facilities and maternal health care. The reason I am saying that it is critical or sensitive is that the Catholic Church opposes the idea of reproductive health, where they are against the use of contraceptives. But the impact of increasing population leads to hunger, poverty and environmental degradation. In the Philippines there are more than one million babies born every year which they will be needing resources in the future such as health care, schooling, food, clothing, and later on employment. Population might be broad when we talk about women issues, but the point here is that the size of the family depends on the couple and the capabilities of a mother to bear. In 1968, the International Year for Human Rights, UN Member States recognized the right of individuals and couples to decide their family size and other international conventions that afﬁrm the right of women and couples to access reproductive health services, which the Philippines is one of those who signed.

With the theme of International Women’s Day, “Equal rights, equal opportunities: progress for all”, we celebrate and acknowledge the rights of women, and we empower them on their privileges and needs in the society without discrimination and violence. May the spirit and principles of Women’s Day be observed and done not only on March 8 but every day of our lives. Let us fight violence against women along with poverty and hunger, and promote gender equality and maternal health. It doesn’t need to be a woman to understand their concerns.

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