OVERVIEW OF GENDER RIGHTS IN 2016 FAMILIES AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE IN THE CONTEXT OF GOVERNMENT’S WAR ON DRUGS AND EJK The death of her husband left the woman with the responsibility of providing for their three (3) children. She is a market vendor and can barely make ends meet. In addition to taking care of their everyday needs, the woman also has to make time to attend to the complaint she file with the CHR against the unidentified men who killed her husband. As one of the CHR’s witnesses, she also attended the Senate hearing on extra-judicial killings. She was summoned by the Senate to attend the hearings four times, and each time she travelled six hours to Manila, with her children in tow. Yet she was never called to testify because in the end, the Senate decided that the witnesses’ affidavits were sufficient. The hardship of the travel to Manila, the two typhoons they had to brave to be in the hearings, and the long hours of waiting are hurdles to access to justice that the wife and her three girl-children had to endure. As Gender Ombud, the CHR seeks to surface these issues and elicit Government’s response which should include making psychosocial services, shelter, security, and economic and livelihood opportunities accesible. Another overlooked effect of the war on drugs is on the state of female detention centers, specifically its congestion. As the number detention places for females is lesser than those for men, congestion remains a continuing concern. The Quezon City Female Detention Center, for instance, has recorded an increase of 100 detainees per month since September 2016. To address this, they converted their assembly area into a dormitory. The Commission has also observed a similar trend in the other regions. 13