Press Release
October 5, 2007

Pia bats for Magna Carta for Women;
To attend IPU meeting of women parliamentarians

Senator Pia S. Cayetano has filed a bill seeking to guarantee the basic rights of women and provide them with necessary protection against discrimination.

Senate Bill No.1701 or the "Magna Carta for Women" aims to protect Filipino women from all forms of gender discrimination.

Cayetano is the First Vice President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union's (IPU) Coordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians and will be joining the Philippine delegation to the 117th Assembly of the IPU in Geneva, Switzerland from October 8-10.

The lady senator will help steer the committee's regular meeting which will discuss current women's issues and updates on the status of pro-women legislation in countries around the world.

The lady senator explained that many Filipino women continue to suffer discrimination despite the implementation of pro-women legislation and statutes, such as the International Bill of Rights laid down by the United Nations in its general assembly in 1979 on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

"CEDAW has been in force for twenty-six years since the Philippines ratified it in 1981. Yet Filipino women continue to suffer from various forms of discrimination stemming from economic, political and social factors and unequal relations between men and women," she stressed.

"When the Philippine government ratified the Convention, it gave the signal to policymakers to embody the spirit and letter of CEDAW in the laws and policies of the land. Two and a half decades of waiting for the fulfillment of this obligation is too long. The time has long been ripe for a comprehensive law that guarantees and recognizes women's basic human rights," the senator added, pointing out that the country has signed for the ratification of CEDAW.

SBN 1701 lays down policies which will enable women to actively participate and contribute to the country's political, economic, social, and cultural development. Also in the bill are provisions which gives women equal access to ownership, management and control of production, and of material and informational resources and benefits in the family, community and society, stressing the importance of their contribution in building the nation.

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