Phases 1 and 3 - Philippines

Informing on children's rights

In the Philippines, the Stairway Foundation Inc. organized a 5-day workshop on children's rights with former street children of Manila, including plays, sport competitions, songs, etc.

Informing on women's rights

In the Philippines, the Philippines Educational Theatre Association performed a play in many towns to raise awareness about violence against women at .  As of June 1999, more than 700 persons had seen the play.  Several newspapers in the country had written articles about it.

Phase 3

Women’s rights, Violence Against Women and Reproductive Rights

Katakus, based in Davao City, conducted two seminars on violence against women, health and reproductive rights for 187 women and 72 men of remote villages of the Davao region, in Philippines. Participants were particularly impressed by the videos on child trafficking; Police officials who attended the workshop reported that they acquired more knowledge on women’s rights and the way to handle rape complaints.

The Reproduction Rights Resource Group Philippines conducted a project aiming at raising awareness on reproductive health for women and youth of Western Mindanao region in Philippines. In order to promote sexual and reproductive health rights, the Reproduction Rights Resource Group Philippines organized two workshops in Zamboanga City aiming at strengthening participants understanding and knowledge of sexual and reproductive health rights and at informing them on existing policies and programmes implemented in Philipines. The workshops gathered twenty six participants including governmental representatives from Health and Education Department, non governmental organizations and academics experts. The workshops focused on lectures and debates on sex and gender differentiation, manifestations of gender bias, sexual reproductive health rights issues across the life cycle and sexual and reproductive health rights in the Muslim context. At the conclusion of the workshops, participants developed posters on women’s rights and translated into Tausug thirteen sexual and reproductive health rights.

Human Rights, Health and Ethics

In Philippines, Medical Action Group conducted a study aiming at determining the level of awareness of urban poor residents on their rights as patients and at describing the health behavior of patients regarding the use of public health facilities in the community. The results of the research revealed that patients’ awareness on their rights is limited owing to lack of access to information. The study also underscored the importance of education and information dissemination among patients and health care providers. It stressed the need to educate health care providers on ethics and human rights in order to make them more aware of their duties to treat their patients with dignity and respect.