woman only has to choose to access them.2 For documentation and research, this means that what is being unsaid is just as important as what is being said. Relevant questions in this regard include what information about GBV is currently being collected and monitored, and which ones are not? with which groups of women? which information can be accessed and utilized, and how are they being utilized? How are these information utilized from the individual level (e.g. facilitate direct service delivery to GBV survivors) to the institutional level (monitoring, development planning, advocacy). 2. The GBV Observatory Project The CHR-GEWHRC started a mapping project of the current GBV referral and documentation systems in June 2018 as a step toward developing a framework for a GBV Observatory. For this project, the mapping focused on two of the most prevalent forms of GBV, based on available statistics: rape as defined in Republic Act 8353, and violence against women and their children (VAWC) as defined in Republic Act 9262.3 The project will map out: 1. current referral systems of government and non-government agencies tasked to address various forms of GBV, and 2. researches and published reports relevant to the Philippine experience of GBV in the past five years. A particular concern in the former is documentation and data management systems – what data on GBV are presently collected by helping agencies, how these are used, stored and shared to enhance service delivery (or develop new ones, as the case may be), and what are the issues and challenges to such. The latter is interested in mapping the thematic areas of current discourse, noting the attention given to which issues or groups of women in relation to GBV. Thus, the following specific objectives of the project: 1. To review the role and functions of different government agencies at the national level and selected regional areas in addressing GBV cases, specifically rape and VAWC; 2. To map out the current referral systems of the above government agencies, as well as select civil society organizations working with survivors of rape and VAWC; 3. To describe the current documentation and data management systems of above government agencies and select civil society organizations working with survivors of rape and VAWC; 4. To map out thematic areas of current GBV discourse, noting the attention given to which issues or groups of Filipino women in relation to GBV. See for instance, Gendering Documentation: A Manual for and about Women’s Human Rights Defenders (Women’s Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, 2015) for its discussion on documentation as a “politically motivated” act, and its critique of prevailing human rights documentation that is focused on violations (thereby producing “victims”), neglecting how women defy and resist powerlessness. 3 In 2017, the 14 percent of the cases received by the Women and Children’s Protection Desk of the Philippine National Police involved a form of sexual violence (i.e. rape, attempted rape, incest rape and acts of lasciviousness), making it second to physical injuries as the most prevalent form of violence against women. In the same year, the Philippine Statistical Authority released a report that 26 percent (or one in four) ever-married women from 15 to 49 years old has experienced physical, sexual or emotional violence by their husband or partner. The data was based on the 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). 2 Making Data Work for Women’s Human Rights A Proposed Framework for the CHR Observatory on Gender-Based Violence 3