Women Can: Courage and Leadership for Gender Equality in a COVID-19 World:

Honor women’s courage and leadership by ensuring gender justice, upholding the rights of women human rights defenders, and eliminating all forms of violence against women

The Commission on Human Rights joins the global community in celebrating International Women’s Day today, 8 March 2021. We honor women and girls, their courage and leadership in addressing the COVID crisis, and their immense contribution in the recovery efforts.

Our celebration, aptly entitled “Juana Laban sa Pandemya: Kaya,” focuses on the efforts and contributions of women and girls around the world, realizing that there can be no gender equal future in a post-COVID-19 world without gender justice.

We honor the many women who played crucial roles in addressing the ongoing pandemic—in households, communities, hospitals and health facilities, and various public and private institutions.

We honor the women who continue to fight against impunity; call out persisting misogyny; and demand accountability for human rights violations. We honor the courage of Senator Leila de Lima who continues to champion human rights and accountability despite her prolonged detention. We likewise honor Vice President Leni Robredo who perseveres in working for the marginalized amid undeserved sexist attacks.

We honor women human rights defenders and activists, who despite persistent crackdowns and red-tagging, and more recently a spate of killings and arrests in the Southern Tagalog Region, continue to advocate for human rights, call for accountability, and amplify the voices of those in the margins.

This International Women’s Day, the Commission as Gender Ombud reiterates the call for gender justice in the government’s COVID-19 recovery plan, including vaccine rollouts. We highlight the need for the diversity and lived experiences of women and girls to inform plans and policies that affect them. We underscore the importance of ensuring gender-responsive interventions, including survivor-centered responses to gender-based violence.

With the continuing economic insecurity, we reiterate the call for food security and economic justice. Many urban poor and rural women continue to face hunger and unemployment. There is a need to address exclusion of certain households in the government’s social protection programs.

Lastly, we reiterate the call for enhanced access to justice and the elimination of all forms violence against women. We call out all forms of red-tagging, silencing of women’s organizations and women leaders, and other acts that limit the women’s political participation.

The Commission is deeply concerned with the intensified police crackdowns on progressive organizations and the arrests of activists in the Southern Tagalog Region, which resulted in the deaths of several persons. Among those arrested in these raids is 61 year old woman—Nimfa Lanzanas, a paralegal aid of Kapatid, a support group for families and friends of political prisoners, who according to Kapatid’s statement continues to help prisoners despite her ailments. We urgently enjoin the government to uphold the rights of women human rights defenders and to stop the red-tagging and attacks against them.

As we celebrate the contributions of women and girls in the world in advancing human rights and human dignity amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we are called to help realize a gender equal world—a world that recognizes their worth, a world that does that discriminate, a world that is safe. #