B. "Sexual violence" refers to an act which is sexual in nature, committed against a woman or her child. It includes, but is not limited to: a) rape, sexual harassment, acts of lasciviousness, treating a woman or her child as a sex object, making demeaning and sexually suggestive remarks, physically attacking the sexual parts of the victim's body, forcing her/him to watch obscene publications and indecent shows or forcing the woman or her child to do indecent acts and/or make films thereof, forcing the wife and mistress/lover to live in the conjugal home or sleep together in the same room with the abuser; b) acts causing or attempting to cause the victim to engage in any sexual activity by force, threat of force, physical or other harm or threat of physical or other harm or coercion; c) Prostituting the woman or child. Statistical figures confirm the above characterization. Emotional and other forms of non-personal violence are the most common type of spousal violence accounting for 23% incidence among evermarried women. One in seven ever-married women experienced physical violence by their husbands while eight percent (8%) experienced sexual violence.115 IV. Refutation of the accused-appellant's arguments The crux of the accused-appellant's plea for acquittal mirrors the irrevocable implied consent theory. In his appeal brief before the CA, he posits that the two incidents of sexual intercourse, which gave rise to the criminal charges for rape, were theoretically consensual, obligatory even, because he and the victim, KKK, were a legally married and cohabiting couple. He argues that consent to copulation is presumed between cohabiting husband and wife unless the contrary is proved. The accused-appellant further claims that this case should be viewed and treated differently from ordinary rape cases and that the standards for determining the presence of consent or lack thereof must be adjusted on the ground that sexual community is a mutual right and obligation between husband and wife.116 The contentions failed to muster legal and rational merit. The ancient customs and ideologies from which the irrevocable implied consent theory evolved have already been superseded by modem global principles on the equality of rights between men and women and respect for human dignity established in various international conventions, such as the CEDAW. The Philippines, as State Party to the CEDAW, recognized that a change in the traditional role of men as well as the role of women in society and in the family is needed to achieve full equality between them. Accordingly, the country vowed to take all appropriate measures to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices, customs and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women.117 One of such measures is R.A. No 8353 insofar as it eradicated the archaic notion that marital rape cannot exist because a husband has absolute proprietary rights over his wife's body and thus her consent to every act of sexual intimacy with him is always obligatory or at least, presumed. Another important international instrument on gender equality is the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which was Promulgated118 by the UN General Assembly subsequent to the CEDA W. The Declaration, in enumerating the forms of gender-based violence