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Womens
Rights are Human Rights!
By Luningning Alcuitas-Imperial
This year
marks the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR). As December 10 - International Human Rights Day
- fast approaches, it is timely that we critically reflect upon
the idea of human rights from our perspective as grassroots working
Filipino women. We also need to ask whether the human rights situation
for Filipino women is improving. After 50 years of living with
international standards for supposedly universal human
rights, are we any closer to achieving the full scope of our human
rights?
Distorted concepts
When we think of human rights, we usually think of individual
freedoms like the right to life, liberty and security of the person.
We also think that human rights are guaranteed in
international instruments, such as the Universal Declaration.
Human rights seems to be something that exists naturally - somewhere
above the societies in which we live where government and economics
plays such an important role in our lives.
But this thinking - primarily propagated by governments such as
the U.S. and Canada which hold themselves out as champions of
human rights, but who often ignore human rights violations in
their own backyards - merely exposes the use of human rights as
an ideological tool. For where did the original concept of human
rights come from? They were not magically granted by governments,
but were only won through peoples struggles. Thus, it is
in the hands of the majority of the exploited and oppressed peoples
to define what the full scope of human rights is. It is also in
the hands of the people to struggle to assert their human rights.
Another way that the human rights debate has been
distorted is through the emphasis on civil and political rights,
such as freedom of speech. While such individual rights should
be promoted, this should not mean that an individual has the right
to exploit others to accumulate wealth and power. Individual rights
are not the only types of rights we need to struggle for. Our
economic, social and cultural rights must also be asserted. The
right to have a livelihood, the right to education, the right
to healthcare, the right to housing - these are all fundamental
rights. Without these important rights, respect for our civil
and political rights means nothing.
Asserting our viewpoint
As grassroots working Filipino women, it is important to grasp
these distinctions. We can draw inspiration from the struggle
of Filipino women, led by GABRIELA (the national alliance of militant
womens organizations in the Philippines). GABRIELA in 1987
first formulated the slogan, Womens Rights are Human
Rights! This was done to assert the viewpoint that there
is a broad range of human rights violations committed against
grassroots women - from domestic violence to the violence perpetrated
by the state (such as rape, sexual molestation and abuse used
as a form of torture by repressive regimes). As Liza Largoza-Maza,
Secretary General of GABRIELA, puts it, Mainstream feminists
were not talking about womens rights as human rights, and
they werent recognizing state violence as violence against
women. You cannot remove the understanding of violence against
women from the larger context of state, economic and political
violence and repression.
The roots of our oppression
This deeper understanding of human rights helps illuminate our
situation as grassroots Filipino women in Canada. The roots of
our exploitation and oppression and, thus, the violations of our
human rights stretches all the way back to the Philippines.
Foreign and elite domination has marked our history as Filipino
women, stripping us of our civil, political, economic, social
and cultural rights. There is rampant inequality in Filipino society
where the majority (80%) live in poverty and a tiny minority continues
to profit from our land and labour. Women are amongst the hardest
hit in Philippine society, especially with the intensified implementation
of the globalization policies of liberalization, deregulation
and privitization. Narrowing job opportunities for Filipino women
are the result. Massive displacement from the land, mass retrenchment
of workers and the increasing prices of basic commodities have
pushed more Filipino women into the thriving sex trade. It is
estimated that there are 400,000 Filipino women prostitutes and
another 100,000 child prostitutes forced into the sex industry
in order to survive.
Of course, the Estrada regime will do nothing to stop these violations
of Filipino womens human rights since it profits from our
continuing displacement, commodification and modern-day slavery.
In fact, the Estrada regime (and its predecessors) are the most
blatant violators of the human rights of its citizens (whom they
are supposed to protect). The Philippine government systematically
represses peoples organizations organizing themselves to
assert their human rights. Women political prisoners continue
to exist in the Philippines. Increasing militarization will mean
renewed attacks against women. For example, a GABRIELA Fact Finding
Mission found that two women (Cely Anonuevo and Marites Casamis)
who had been salvaged by the military in Dingalan, Aurora in June
1998 were subjected to sexual violence as a form of torture. The
teenage girls bodies were found unclothed and riddled with
gunshot wounds around their genital areas and breasts. These horrific
human rights violations will likely intensify if the Visiting
Forces Agreement with the U.S. is ratified, since the continued
presence of the U.S. military in the country will be ensured.
With this continuing crisis of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal
structure of the Philippine economy, Filipino women are forced
to migrate abroad in order to survive. Our numbers swell throughout
the world - although the impact of the Asian crisis means that
Filipino women working abroad are now in a more vulnerable position.
Can we even speak of any improvement in the human rights situation
of Filipino women if we cannot even find work to survive in our
own country?
Human rights for Filipino women
in Canada?
As grassroots Filipino women in Canada, our human rights situation
also continues to worsen. We remain extremely marginalized, exploited
and oppressed within Canadian society. Despite serving as cheap
labour to help fuel the growth of the Canadian economy, our basic
human rights as women are not respected. The right to housing,
the right to employment which makes full use of our skills and
abilities, the right to be free of violence (especially socio-economic
forms such as poverty), the right to education - these remain
an elusive dream for our women who are struggling to assert our
equality as working women in Canada.
If we look at the situation for domestic workers - who are the
majority of Filipino women in Canada - the picture is even more
gripping. With the fundamentally exploitative characteristics
of the Live-in Caregiver Program of Canada Immigration, domestic
workers are suffering some of the worst forms of human rights
violations. Long hours, low wages, physical and emotional abuse
are problems along with the larger structural context of the mandatory
live-in requirement and the temporary working visa. Can Canada
really hold itself out as a champion of human rights for all?
Canada blatantly exploits and oppresses a marginalized group of
Third World women, while ironically ignoring the right of all
Canadian families to child care. Canada relegates us to second-class
status and, even now, seeks to attack our rights through the proposed
changes in the Immigration Legislative Review. While Canadian
institutions (like the Canadian Human Rights Commission) plan
to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the UDHR, Canada refuses
to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Protection of Migrant
Workers Rights and Welfare.
Continuing the struggle
Recognizing our human rights situation, we also grasp that, as
grassroots Filipino women in Canada, our continuing struggle to
assert the full scope of our human rights must be done in the
context of our overall struggle for our liberation. This means
actively educating, organizing and mobilizing ourselves against
the root causes of our migration, exploitation and oppression
and actively supporting the Filipino peoples struggle for
national and social liberation. For it is only when conditions
of exploitation, inequality and foreign domination are removed,
that we can truly celebrate the assertion of our human rights.
q
PWC began
the Centre UPdate as a means of empowerment and education of the
community. Since it's early beginings the Centre UPdate has been
the voice marginalized Filipino women in Canada.
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