CHAPTER 3 MONITORING COMPLIANCE WITH THE MAGNA CARTA OF WOMEN P ursuant to the Gender Ombud Guidelines, the CHR Regional Offices are tasked to report semi-annually on their activities in relation to this CHR function. This involves reporting on its protection, promotion, and advocacy efforts, including those on complaints received, monitoring and promotional activities conducted, and advisories issued. This chapter of the report highlights the CHR initiatives under its protection function, specifically in relation to its role as Gender Ombud, as well as the issues and challenges it faces. Featured are the responses of the different government agencies to the CHR’s inquiry on the implementation of the MCW, as well as the efforts of the CHR Central and Regional Offices in operationalizing its role as Gender Ombud. Apart from CHR monitoring reports, another source of information for this chapter is the result of the CHR national consultation, entitled “CEDAW General Recommendation 19: Accelerating Women’s Access to Justice for Gender Based Violence,” held in March 2016. PROTECTION FROM VIOLENCE (SEC. 9) Based on the MAREIS, the CHR, through its 15 regional offices, received a total of 1,205 complaints involving women from January to November 2016. Out of these, 623 were for legal assistance and 581 were for investigation.24 • Of the 623 legal assistance cases, 94 pertained to violence against women, 2 were from women with disabilities, 14 from women belonging to indigenous cultural communities, and 21 requests for legal assistance from the LGBTI communities. • Of the 581 cases investigated, 64 pertained to violence against women, and 34 for violations of the Magna Carta of Women. In terms of sectors, 6 complaints were filed by women with disabilities, 18 complaints were filed by women belonging to indigenous cultural communities and 40 complaints were from the LGBTI communities, including 4 cases of killings. The data herein presented is based on MAREIS data from the period of January 2016 to November 2016. The data may not coincide with the regional reports for several reasons: mistagged cases upon entry to the system, failure of the regions to update cases, double counting of cases, etc. 24