OVERVIEW OF GENDER RIGHTS IN 2016 The CHR issued public statements against cases of sexual harassment, objectification of women, and trivialization of VAW by government officials, including those committed by Rodrigo Duterte, both when he was still a presidential candidate and after he was elected. In early 2016, women’s human rights advocates filed a complaint against then presidential candidate Duterte for making a rape joke in one of his campaign sorties17 and discriminatory statements against women with disabilities in another venue.18 The complaint invoked the role of the CHR as the Gender Ombud to investigate these incidents. For its part, despite allegations of political bias and the subsequent attacks on its independence, the CHR issued a statement calling out the said acts as violations of the MCW and of women’s human rights in general.19 It forwarded several recommendations, one of which was adopted by the Civil Service Commission (CSC). It passed a resolution requiring all government officials to undergo an annual gender sensitivity training. Other cases of sexism in the government involved high public officials. These included public catcalling of women and making statements or jokes objectifying women and their bodies. In 2016, the House of Representatives was called out by the Commission because some of its members’ sexist remarks against Senator Leila de Lima in the context of the drug-related inquiries. In particular, they wanted to show a supposed sex video of Senator de Lima during a Congressional Inquiry. This was cited by the Commission as a violation of women’s human rights. It also raised concerns about the Congressional Hearings on drugs becoming a venue to target specific personalities, rather than discussing the issue as part of their work to investigate in aid of legislation. 20 The normalization of violence against women was likewise apparent in the cyber attacks against 9 women and girls protesting against the Marcos burial in November 2016. The attacks were done through posting and reposting of female dissenters’ pictures online with lewd and sexually explicit captions and comments, and in some instances, threats of sexual violence.21 The perpetrators of these cyber attacks and its propagation are, more often than not, online “trolls” who are anonymous and difficult to trace. The above cases of VAW and gender-based violence (GBV) continue to undermine the full enjoyment of women’s and LGBTIs’ human rights, and especially when the perpetrators are government officials. It also highlighted the hurdles advocates face beyond lobbying for gender-responsive policies. Beyond the text of the law and its enforcement, developing a culture of zero tolerance for violence and discrimination remains to be the greater challenge. GENDER AND CHILD PERSPECTIVES ON EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS From June to December 2016, the PNP reported 5,617 drug related killings, of which, 1, 959 are allegedly perpetuated by the police, and 3,658 are vigilante killings. Of this number, the CHR commenced investigations of 346 cases involving 430 victims of alleged extra-judicial killings (EJK). Of these, 19 cases (4%) involved women as victims, whether as direct targets (14) or “collateral damage”22 (5). Five of the 19 women who were directly targeted were either wives or live-in partners of suspected drug personalities, alleged to also be involved in illegal drug trade. For the rest, the victims were killed by police officers or unidentified assassins on the suspicion of being drug pushers or having links with drug-related activities. Apart from investigating, monitoring, and CHR Case No. 2016-078; See also news from the Philippine Daily Inquirer (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/780557/rights-complaint-filed-after-dutertes-rape-remark) See article in the Manila Times (http://www.manilatimes.net/pwds-file-complaint-against-duterte/260718/) 19 CHR Resolution on Case No. 2016-078 (on the rape joke), dated 20 May 2016, and the Resolution on its Motion for Reconsideration dated 06 March 2017. 20 CHR statement (02 October 2016). “Uphold Women’s Human Rights – Stop the Showing of the Alleged Sex Video.” 21 See for instance, de Jesus S. (21 November 2016). “Let’s gang-bang her’: Anti-Marcos protester get rape threats.” Rappler. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/technology/socialmedia/153042-facebook-comments-anti-marcos-girl-rape-threats 17 18