CEDAW/C/SR.748 (A)
In the absence of Ms. Manalo, Ms. Schöpp-Schilling,
Vice-Chairperson, took the Chair.
The meeting was called to order at 3 p.m.
Consideration of reports submitted by States parties
under article 18 of the Convention (continued)
Combined fifth and sixth periodic report of the
Philippines (continued) (CEDAW/C/PHI/5-6;
CEDAW/C/PHI/Q/6 and Add.1)
1.
At the invitation of the Chairperson, the members
of the delegation of the Philippines took places at the
Committee table.
Articles 10 to 14 (continued)
2.
The Chairperson, speaking as a member of the
Committee, commended the State party for its efforts
to reduce poverty. However, she would be grateful for
detailed information about the results of the various
strategies implemented. She was a little concerned
about the importance accorded to microcredit
programmes, at the expense of more ambitious
initiatives to improve women’s economic prospects,
and urged the Government to address the problems
affecting the informal labour market. In particular, and
in line with general recommendation No. 16, the
necessary steps should be taken to ensure that unpaid
women working in family businesses had access to
social benefits. On previous occasions, the Committee
had pointed to the negative effects of trade
liberalization on women’s employment, and she would
therefore like to know more about the steps taken by
the Government to counteract those effects.
3.
She was also concerned about home-based
workers. The State party should indicate whether such
workers were represented by trade unions, whether
they received health benefits and whether their
working conditions were monitored. Information about
their hourly wage should also be provided. With regard
to rural women, she enquired about the influence of
religion, especially Islam, on their employment
prospects. The significant pay gap between women and
men must not be allowed to persist, and she
encouraged the Government to draw on studies already
conducted in the United States and Scandinavia in
order to gain a clearer understanding of the problem.
2
4.
Women accounted for 63 per cent of Filipino
migrant workers and, despite the protective measures
adopted by the Government, still suffered from abuse
and discrimination. She would like to know more about
the steps taken to monitor the whereabouts of female
migrant workers, particularly since many of them left
the country on tourist visas. How many countries had
entered into bilateral labour agreements with the
Philippines, and were those countries major
destinations for migrant workers?
Ms. Šimonović recalled that, following its
5.
consideration of the combined third and fourth periodic
report of the Philippines in 1997, the Committee had
recommended that reproductive and sexual health
services, including family planning and contraception,
should be made available and accessible to all women
in all regions. The current report suggested, however,
that the State party had failed to act on that
recommendation, and she was particularly concerned
about the ban on artificial methods of contraception in
some areas. What had the Government done to ensure
that comprehensive reproductive health services were
available to all women?
6.
The Philippines had the highest maternal
mortality ratio in South-East Asia. Given the link
between unsafe, illegal abortions and maternal
mortality, she asked whether any steps had been taken
to reduce the number of unsafe abortions. She enquired
whether
the
State
party
was
considering
decriminalizing abortion, which remained an offence
under the revised Penal Code. She would also be
interested to know how many women had been
imprisoned as a result of those provisions and whether
girls under the age of 18 were also subject to
prosecution. Lastly, the State party should indicate the
measures taken to ensure that women who had
undergone abortions received adequate aftercare.
Ms. Morvai recalled her visit to the Manila
7.
airport, where she had witnessed the distress of women
migrant workers who were leaving their children in
order to take up employment overseas. While some
feminists believed that working abroad was a liberating
experience for women, she took the view that the
phenomenon carried a high cost for both society as a
whole and individual workers. She enquired whether
the State party had devised a comprehensive, long-term
strategy to deal with it, and also asked whether any
thought had been given to adopting measures designed
to encourage women to stay in the Philippines. How
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