ISO: PHL *************************************************************************** The electronic version of this document has been prepared at the Fourth World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Secretariat. *************************************************************************** AS WRITTEN CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY TOWARDS THE 21ST CENTURY OF WOMEN: FROM COMMITMENT TO ACTION Statement of Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani Head of the Philippine Delegation to the Fourth UN World Conference on Women, 04-15 September 1995 Beijing, People's Republic of China INTRODUCTION We bring to you the warm greetings of our President Fidel V. Ramos and the Filipino people. They are one with us in spirit at this momentous and historic meeting as we renew our commitment to the women's cause and as we celebrate and rejoice over the gains won. In the second part of my statement, I shall speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, which aggrupation the Philippines has the honor to chair at this conference. We wish to thank the great people of the People's Republic of China and their leaders for successfully organizing this conference of gigantic proportions. China is a neighboring country with whom we share centuries-old ties and with whom we want to live in peace and friendship. The Philippine delegation,for its part, has worked hard for the success of this conference and has walked that extra mile, knowing that the success of China will also be the success of the Asia-Pacific region and that the victory of our Chinese sisters will also be the victory of women all over the world. We salute the President of the Conference, Madame Chen Muhua, who, we are certain, will bring her stateswoman-like qualities of wisdom, courage and generosity to the proceedings of this Conference. A CONFERENCE OF COMMITMENT This is a defining moment for all of us, positioned as we are at the threshold of the 21st Century which in the view of the Philippine delegation should become the Century of Women. Women of the world: behold, our time has come! We are gathered here to participate in a Conference of Commitment, a conference that should go beyond empty rhetoric, a conference where delegates should have their feet firmly planted on the ground yet have their eyes sharply focused on the beckoning stars -- a global consensus which could empower women to widen their choices throughout the various stages of their lives. The 1995 Human Development Report, a most important document on gender, produced by the UNDP, makes the startling revelation that the undervalued and unpaid work of women totals US$ 11 trillion annually. This staggering amount is unaccounted for because so much of women's work is not part of the national system of accounts. Experience has shown us that poor women are reliable borrowers, yet they have inadequate access to credit. Violence against women continues to destroy women's lives but too few women are in positions of power and authority to do anything about it. And regretably, there are few societies in the world today where women enjoy the same social, economic and political opportunities as men. ENOUGH OF INEQUALITY To these and other forms of inequality and marginalization which continue to be inflicted on women, we say: Enough is enough! We said this loud and clear in Nairobi, 10 years ago, when we adopted the Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, which demonstrated the inseparability of equality, development and peace. These strategies have shaped and influenced the world's agenda on concerns and challenges confronting women. But progress has been slow because the world is still dominated by man-made structures. THE PHILIPPINES AND WOMEN'S CONCERNS Yet, we have gone a long way since Nairobi where the Third World Conference on Women was held in 1985, and of which I was very much a part of in my capacity as Secretary-General of that Conference. Permit me to say that my country has always been at the forefront of world action for women. In fact, the Philippine delegation at this conference includes three women members who served as chairs of the Commission on the Status of Women in various years: former Senator Helena Benitez, who chaired the Commission in the '60s; myself in the '70s; and Ambassador Rosario Manalo in the '80s. The present chair of the Commission is another Filipina, Dr. Patricia Licuanan. This continuity of service and commitment of Filipino women illustrates the degree of seriousness we, in the Philippines, attach to educating and empowering women. In 1986, a year after Nairobi, my country showed the world that a non-violent revolution was possible and that change can-- and does-- come from the people themselves. This peaceful, home- grown revolution, made possible not by use of military might but by people power, was led by a woman, a courageous and determined housewife, who became our first woman President, Corazon C. Aquino. She restored democracy and respect for human rights in our country after years of authoritarian rule and economic pillage and mismanagement by Government. Within the democratic space thus provided, Filipino women consciously resumed our journey towards equality, development and peace. STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE PHILIPPINES The principle of the fundamental equality between women and men is enshrined in the Philippine Constitution. This is the basis for the adoption of legislation, policies and other types of affirmative action that seek to raise the status of Filipino women. To illustrate, a landmark legislation is the Philippine law on Women in Development and Nation Building. This law mandates Government to ensure that women benefit and participate on an equal basis with men in all government programs and to allocate a portion of official development assistance it receives from donor countries for women projects. Another precedent-shattering piece of legislation adopted is the anti-sexual harassment law, which protects women from sexual harassment in the workplace-and in learning institutions and punishes offenders. A bill which reclassifies rape as a crime against the person and not against chastity has been filed in our legislature. The implementation of laws, policies and programs that would close the gender gap is a serious commitment both of our Government and of the dynamic and articulate NGO community of our country. This is reflected in the 1995 Human Development Report which ranked the Philippines as 28th out of 116 countries in its Gender Empowerment Measure, which examines the extent to which women are able to actively participate in the economic and political life in their countries. The same Report ranked our country 64th out of 130 countries in its Gender Development Index, which gauged how countries are able to address gender inequality in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and real income. These are modest yet significant gains. ENGENDERING THE PHILIPPINE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS We fully believe that for the Filipino nation to move forward, the full and equal partnership between women and men must be achieved: without equality, there can be no development. Accordingly, in 1989 we formulated and implemented the Philippine Development Plan for Women (1989-1992); we have just finalized the Perspective Plan for Gender- Responsive Development, a 30-year plan that identifies gender concerns which the government must address in the long-term. Plans have been approved by President Fidel V. Ramos to engender the major programs of Government with the assistance of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women. We have instituted the Women's Budget Statement in our 1995 national budget and to continue annually thereafter, which instructs government offices to allocate a portion of their annual budget to gender-oriented programs. Already, we have allocated more than 35 percent of our national budget to social programs and services since these are central to women's concerns and everyday lives. In all these activities, the Philippine Government fully acknowledges the catalytic role of our NGOs without whose commitment and organizing skills our country would not enjoy the many advances we have made on women. We fully support the multi-faceted mega NGO Forum at Huairou. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND PROGRAMS In the view of our delegation, without budgetary resources, the objectives, contained in the Beijing Platform of Action, will again remain unimplemented, dead on official paper. In this connection, the Philippine Government will increase its annual contribution to UNIFEM by 700 percent. We hope that other countries will increase support for UNIFEM, which will playa crucial role in the post- Beijing period, so that UNIFEM's current capacity of US$ 16 million can be doubled by 1996. SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION Our government also commits itself to forge stronger collaboration with developing countries in the area of women under the existing technical assistance program of the Philippines on South-South cooperation: we believe that it pays to invest in women. But side by side with our gains and advances are deep problems and contradictions. THREE MAJOR PHILIPPINE CONCERNS Let me therefore turn to three key issues, which the Philippine Government gives highest priority. This concerns the plight of our rural women, our women overseas workers and women and children who are victims of trafficking. Our rural women, both peasants and fisherfolk, comprise 80 percent of our female population, and are marginalized and neglected. Yet, it is the rural women, with the men, who produce our food and provide food security. Indeed, they are the unsung heroines of the good earth. My Government will intensify the training of rural women and give them more access to credit,especially as we enter the unequal playing field in the agriculture sector of the global economy due to the membership of the Philippines in the World Trade Organization. Our migrant workers, the majority of whom are women, are among the best of our country's globally shared resources. We call on the receiving countries to forge bilateral agreements with our Government and to ratify all relevant international instruments such as the International Convention on the Protection of All Migrant Workers and their Families. We reiterate our willingness to host an International Conference on Migration and Development. The other area of concern of our country deals with women and child victims of trafficking. The Government is committed to impose more stringent penalties for those who engage in trafficking. Concerns of the Group of 77 and China May I now turn to the concerns of the Group of 77 and China. The Group of 77 and China are united in the aspiration to advance the rights and welfare of women. [Women are important agents of healing, reform and change; their empowerment could provide the cutting edge in the kind of development we want to see in the21st Century.] Hereunder is a brief summary of the concerns of the Group of 77 and China: 1. Poverty is the single continuing heaviest burden on women. Truly, poverty has a woman's face. Among the world's 1.6 billion poor people, 70% are women, a cruel condition which should not be tolerated. 2. Acts of violence against women destroy the dignity and individual worth of women. The world should not sanction, much less condone, this depraved behavior still so wide spread in the world. 3. Human Development means people-centered development and this necessarily calls for investing in people, including women. While most of the funding in support of human development will have to come mainly from national budgets, we call on the industrialized countries to be forthcoming and lead in giving women what had long been due them. 4. As called for in the Copenhagen Programme of Action, the Member States of the United Nations should set up an International Fund for Social Development for education and other programs which will empower women. We also call for a reaffirmation on the part of developed and developing countries to allocate the 20/20 formula in their national budgets directed to social growth and progress, to include gender- related programs. 5. The Group of 77 and China reminds the industrialized countries to stand by their pledge to allocate 0.7 of their GNP to development assistance, with 0.15% directed to the least developed countries. There must be a sharing of resources: the world cannot survive three-fourths poor and one-fourth rich. 6. The call made in Copenhagen is reiterated for durable and effective solutions to the external debt problem of many Member States. [This demand can be concretized through the immediate implementation of the various debt forgiveness schemes agreed upon in 1994 in the Paris Club. The possibility of coming up with schemes as debt swaps for women’s programs and other innovative measures must be explored.] 7. Women in developing countries are disproportionately subjected to the adverse and hostile effects of the world’s economic crisis. It is imperative that international cooperation and assistance be directed at correcting these economic imbalances, including burdens arising from external debts. 8. The Group of 77 and China gives highest priority to the mobilization of new and additional resources on the part of international financial institutions, and other bilateral and multilateral development agencies, to support economic and social programs linked with the strategies in the Platform for Action. 9. The existing institutions for women at the national, regional and international levels should be strengthened in terms of budget and mandate. At the United Nations, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Division for the Advancement of Women, UNIFEM and INSTRAW, should be given the necessary financial and human resources that will strengthen their roles in implementing the provisions of the Beijing Platform of Action. 10. United Nations system and other international organizations, male- dominated as they are, should take effective measures to eliminate barriers to the advancement of women 'within their respective organizations. In sum, the Group of 77 and China calls upon all Governments and civil society, men and women, to create in partnership sustained economic growth and sustainable development within a culture of peace and respect for human rights. Conclusion May I now conclude. Let the Beijing Platform of Action be the launching pad for women to enter, in partnership with men, the 21st Century, the Century of Women. But we, women, must first transform ourselves if we want to transform the world into a better world. Empowerment must come from within and without. We must lead, not only follow. We must be the doctor who can heal and cure, and not be just the patient. We must be catalysts and initiators of change, and not just be seekers of the status quo. Then, there will be hope and happiness for our daughters and sons and future generations for they will be able to live, because of women, in a more humane, a more caring and less violent society, and can become part of a more just and a more democratic world order.