The Commission on Human Rights, as the country’s National Human Rights Institution and as the Gender and Development Ombud under the Magna Carta of Women (RA 9710) monitors the State’s compliance with its treaty obligations. Among the treaties that the Commission monitors is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and its Optional Protocol which allows for the filing of individual complaints of discrimination and inquiries into systemic and grave violations of women’s human rights. The Philippines ratified CEDAW in 1981, the 1st ASEAN country to do so. In 2003 the Philippines ratified the Optional Protocol to CEDAW.

Since the Philippines’ ratification of the Optional Protocol to CEDAW, the Committee has already issued four Committee views finding the Philippines remiss in its obligations under CEDAW. Two of these cases, KTV vs Philippines and RPB vs. Philippines pertain to the reliance on gender stereotypes and rape myths in deciding cases of rape as forms of discrimination against women. The third view was a response to the request for inquiry on grave and systemic violations of women’s human rights in the City of Manila as a result of the denial of reproductive health and rights services and commodities. The most recent, and fourth view from the Committee was issued on 8 March 2023 in time for International Women’s Day, the case of Alonzo et. al vs. Philippines or that of the Malaya Lolas. The UN CEDAW Committee’s view resolved the complaint forwarded by the Malaya Lolas who were victims of sexual slavery during wartime Japanese occupation in the Philippines.