WeDpro, Inc. A feminist collective working for women’s empowerment

Fight for Women's Rights; Reject Violence: The Importance of the International Women’s Day

By Aida F. Santos-Maranan
on behalf of BUKLOD and the Nagkakaisang Kababaihan ng Angeles (NAGKA)
Project Manager, “The Red AVP” (WeDpro,Inc.)

A hundred years has passed when the first The International Women’s Day (IWD) was first celebrated in 1910. It was first declared in the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen attended by 100 women from 17 countries. It was proposed by Clara Zetkin (leader of the “Women’s Office” of the Social Democratic Party in Germany) that a special day be set aside for women to present to the world their rights. The IWD is a tradition that celebrates the continuing and unbroken struggle of women for equality, justice and prosperity.

This is our special day for gathering and unity, a celebration for our successes, big or small. This is also the day to address the challenges so we can continue to hold in our hands and achieve our human rights for a genuiney humane and liberating progress.

In the context of present-day society, we are challenged by many things. There is the El Niño that ravage thousands of hectares of crops. This means loss of income for our farmers, and starvation. The hunger of families, the increasing price of rice and other food is first faced by women because we still have the primary responsibility of nurturing our families, of first responding to our children crying in hunger. There is the threat of lack of electricity, an important thing in our daily lives. There is the loss or lack of work, corruption, the lack of adequate funding and benefits and security for our rights to education and health. There is the continuing absence of peace in some parts of our country especially in Mindanao. The violence against women and their families persists.

The increasing number of women and children becoming victims of violence – in and outside the home – is a major blow to human rights of women and youth. This affects our progress. In 1993, at the International Conference on Human Rights (World Conference on Human Rights) held in Vienna, Europe, the world declared that violence against women is a human rights issue and a public health issue, and if not stopped will become a barrier to sustainable development. The rights and needs are interconnecting fiber in our lives. It is indivisible: the response to poverty is a response to our economic, social, civil, and political rights. In particular, and especially for women, rights within the home are not disparate from without. In the context of our project, we celebrate IWD as our response to violence against women and children in our cities and barangays. There are still many challenges, and we will face more work. We need the help of our men because the success of women is their success, too, and our communities, and the Filipino people in general.

We wholeheartedly thank the local governments of Angeles and Olongapo and the chair of barangays Amsic, Malabanias, Gordon Heights, and West Bajac-Bajac for their warm reception to our initiative, our project. We also are grateful to the representatives of the European Union – Hon. Gabriel Munuera-Viñals and Hon. Camilla Hagstrom – which are now with us, for their support for our initiative. More importantly, we thank the women and men of the communities who come to believe that the true equality, justice, and freedom will indeed reign in the future.

The IWD is our celebration. Thank you and good day to all of you.

Commit ▪ Act ▪ Demand: We CAN End Violence Against Women