policy (DoH Administrative Order 45-B, s. 2000) to ensure the practical realization of
women’s and girls’ right to humane, compassionate, nonjudgmental and quality postabortion care. However, as will be raised in this letter, notwithstanding these recent
positive developments, the state party has allowed significant gaps and barriers to the full
realization of women’s and girls’ reproductive rights in the Philippines to persist.
Recommendations received by the state party from other UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies
since the pre-session. In May 2016, the Committee Against Torture called upon the state
party to (a) immediately revoke Manila City’s Executive Order (EO) 003 and EO 030, (b)
review the abortion ban to allow exceptions such as when the pregnancy endangers the
life or health of the woman, when it is the result of rape or incest and in cases of fetal
impairment, (c) provide universal access to the “full range of the safest and most
technologically advanced methods of contraception” and “rights-based counselling and
information on reproductive health services to all women and adolescents”, (d) “restore
access to emergency contraceptives for victims of sexual violence”, (e) establish a
“confidential complaints mechanism for women subjected to discrimination, harassment
or ill-treatment while seeking post-abortion or post-pregnancy treatment or other
reproductive health services”, and (f) “investigate, prevent and punish of all incidence of
ill-treatment of women seeking post-pregnancy care in government hospitals and provide
effective legal remedies to the victims”.3
I.
Supplemental Information in Response to the Committee’s LOIs
1. Please provide information on the measures taken to give effect to the
recommendations contained in the CEDAW Committee’s inquiry concerning the
Philippines under article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women…including any
results achieved and how monitoring and effective oversight are ensured.
Please include information on steps taken to implement the following
recommendations: (i) officially revoke Executive Orders 003 and 030….
As noted by the Committee during its special inquiry under article 8 of the Optional
Protocol of the Convention,4 the state party must “establish permanent coordination and
monitoring mechanisms” to ensure that women can enjoy their rights without
discrimination.5 As discussed in more depth in our pre-session letter, there is still the
absence of effective mechanisms to monitor and ensure that discriminatory laws and
policies are not enacted and, if enacted, that they are not carried out or are immediately
revoked.
Response of the state party. In its reply to the LOIs, the state party failed to provide
information on the steps taken to ensure effective monitoring and oversight of the
implementation of the Committee’s inquiry recommendations.
The state party reported that the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of
2012 (RPRHA) 6 “repealed or amended existing laws…that are inconsistent with it