The world remains an alarmingly dangerous place for women and girls, where violence continues to threaten their safety, well-being, and fundamental rights.
Every 10 minutes, a woman is killed according to the United Nations (UN) Women. In the Philippines, 11,585 cases of violations of violence against women (VAW)-related laws were recorded in 2023 – an 8.4 percent increase from 2022 data. More than numbers, these represent women’s lives broken and even lost.
Women in marginalized sectors experience worse. Women environmental defenders, women workers and farmers, Indigenous women, and other identities endure gender-based violence on top of their systemic discrimination tied to their economic and social positions.
These alarming statistics demand urgent action from governments, civil society, and individuals to put a stop to this crisis of gender-based violence.
The Philippine Commission on Women recently launched a five-year National Action Plan to END VAW (NAP EVAW) primarily focused on “prevention, response systems, and cross-cutting structure and actions.” The NAP EVAW, paired with strengthening the implementation of VAW-related laws, is a critical step toward breaking the cycle of gender-based violence in the country.
The Alternative Law Groups remains committed to continuously using legal empowerment to help women and girls fully realize their rights. With robust VAW-related laws in the Philippines, the first step is knowing these laws and then using them to forward their rights and shape the justice system for a safer and violence-free society.
Violence happens every day and every day that passes without action is another day for violence against countless women and girls. There’s no better time to #EndVAW than NOW!