Your Sexual Rights Online: Legislation for Safe Online Space

Brave Women. Invigorated to continue fighting for safety and security of women online and offline by the presence of these two courageous ladies - Jessica, a fellow resource person for the Senate Committee Hearing for Gender Based Electronic Violence, and Senator Risa Hontiveros, staunch advocate for women's rights.

Even before I perused the United Nations Human Rights document on Rights to Privacy online,  I've already heard of the phrase,  "our rights offline is our rights online" from friends in the Information Communication Technology advocacy, particularly from Democracy.net.ph. This is true especially in the discourse of gender based violence - we are supposed to be protected online as well as offline. Ideally.

The incidents related to the Facebook pages called "Hokage" and "Pastor", popularized and further exposed by the page Catcalled in the Philippines,  tell us otherwise.  The experience of the young girls who spoke against the Marcos burial only to be met by threats of rape and murder is evidence against this ideal.  The vitriol the LGBT community receives online when there are talks of same sex marriage or gender affirming interventions, such as in the case of Jake Zyrus,  is a manifestation of homophobia. My own experience as a woman and an advocate against rape culture have also exposed me to some traumatizing experiences online,  the mildest of which were comments on my alleged propensity to go out with whichever guy happens to be in the area, just because I insisted that consent to go somewhere (even if it is a motel) is not consent for sex.

Our rights offline are our rights online,  perhaps because the violation of our rights online has severe consequences beyond cyberspace. Sexual violence offline causes significant psychological trauma to people.  Depression,  self harm, nightmares, and suicide are just some of the symptoms experienced by victims. The same mental anguish can be observed in victims of online sexual harassment. One of the victims reported feeling depressed, having suicidal thoughts, and engaging in self harm. Her intimate photos on Facebook may have already been deleted, but not the scar on her left wrist. The violation, whether done offline and online, has the same effect of mental, emotional, and psychological anguish for victims. 

It was these recent events and out personal experiences that led me and two other fierce, intelligent, and beautiful women to start speaking out against sexual violence online, and when the opportunity to do more impact by telling our stories in aid of legislation, Doc Tess Termulo and Ate Christene dela Cruz made sure that out voices will be heard. This was only a prelude. "Something wicked this way comes," but that is another story for another day. 

We received an invitation to meet with the staff of Senator Risa Hontiveros, the proponent of the Tres Marias bills which aimed to strengthen the existing rape law, introduce peer-to-peer sexual harassment, and prosecute online violence against women and the LGBT. We were also invited as resource persons during the hearing of the Senate Committees on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality; and Science and Technology for a public hearing on the said bill. I was invited as one of victims of online harassment, as well as incorporator of the Philippine Society of SRH Nurses, Inc. As a resource person, I was tasked to prepare a position paper for the Society, as well as a personal statement. Both of these will be published in subsequent blogpost. 

This engagement opens up a whole new avenue on protecting our sexual rights online, which something every netizen should look forward to.

Two bills concerning online violence are in deliberation. 

Senator Hontiveros's proposed "Gender-based Electronic Violence Act of 2016” is an amalgamation of Senator Binay's expansion of VAW to cyberspace and the reality than the LGBT is also a constant target of online violence. In this bill, gender-based electronic violence (GBEV) is defined as, "an offense refers to any acts or omissions involving the use or exploitation of ephemeral data or any form of information and communications technology (ICT) which causes or is likely to cause mental, emotional, or psychological distress or suffering to the female victim or Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer (LGBTQ) victim, and tending to disparage the dignity and personhood of the same on account of his or her gender, including but not limited to: 

In 2013, Senator Nancy Binay filed the proposed Electronic Violence Against Women (E-VAW) Law of 2013, which aimed to expand the coverage of the existing Anti Violence Against Women and Their Children Act (RA9262) to cyberspace. While an excellent proposal due to the proliferation of revenge porn cases - where intimate partners upload, the E-VAW bill still only covers women who were violated by people who they have sexual or dating relationships with. The bill, therefore, does not encompass online violence committed by persons who have no relation to the victim - such as in the case of the girl who protested against Marcos or those men who kept sharing women's photos with lewd comments. 

1. Unauthorized recording, reproduction or distribution of videos showing the victim’s naked or undergarment-clad genitals, public area, buttocks or breasts; 

2. Uploading or sharing without the consent of the victim, any form of media that contain pictures, voice or video of the victim with lewd, indecent, obscene or sexual content: 

3. Harassing or threatening the victim through text messaging, obscene, misogynistic, homophobic or indecent posts in social media sites, or other cyber, electronic or multimedia means; 

4. Cyber-stalking which includes, but is not limited to the hacking of personal accounts on social networking sites, the use of location trackers on cellular devices; and 

5. Unauthorized use of the victim’s picture, video, voice, name or any other aspect of the victim’s identity and distributing the same in any video game, phone application, program and the like, which deliberately exposes the victim to harassment and attack and puts or tends to put the victim in a bad light or injure the victim’s reputation."


The innovations of these bills filed by Senators Binay and Hontiveros serve as responses to the changing times and the dynamic challenge of preventing and persecuting gender based violence. I, for one, am excited to see this landmark bill become law.# 

Youth Solutions Forum: Capacitating Young People for Sustainable Development

It was a rainy morning when I made my way to Ateneo University. It was July 29, the day of the Youth Solutions Forum, an event organized by the United Nations SustainableDevelopment Solutions Network Youth - Philippines. With the encouragement of my colleagues and friends, particularly the always-supportive Kevin of the Forum for FamilyPlanning and Development Inc., I submitted my application and represented the Philippine Society of SRH Nurses, Inc. during the forum.

The event was attended by other youth leaders, perhaps no older than I was when I started in the advocacy. It was so nice to see so many young people gathering together to talk about sustainable development. In 2015, the Philippines committed itself to the realization of the United Nations Sustainable DevelopmentGoals, a conglomeration of 17 interdependent goals geared towards inclusive growth and development. Since then those who have advocated for the Millennium Development Goals have also been working towards the SDG, joined by new blood, bringing with them the tech-savvy and invigorating creativity of Millennials. I only say "new blood", by the way, because I am much older than a lot of the attendees. 

The event kicked off with an inspiring presentation by Usec Philip Dy of the Office of the Vice President of the Philippines. He delivered a presentation on behalf of VP Leni Robredo, the “Laylayan” Economy. Taking the tagline of the SDG, “Leave No One Behind”, the Office of the VP has partnered with various sectors to bring much needed help to the Geographically Isolated and Depressed Areas (GIDAs). “We cannot talk about sustainable development without youth involvement,” the Vice President emphasized, highlighting the importance of young people in the movement towards inclusive prosperity. The VP was explicit on the responsibility of young leaders: “Great leaders are all powerful advocates, fighting for things bigger than themselves”. She also shares an important concept in helping people effectively: “Listen with empathy… Empathy makes you ask powerful questions… A little empathy can go a long way to help those in the margins” – a simple first step for any young person who wants to help in the movement towards sustainable development, and a reminder for any seasoned advocate to always go back to why they are fighting for what they are fighting for.

Plenary session 2.1 was a briefer on what sustainable development actually is. Dr. Rosario Ofreneo of the UP Social Work and Development gave a simple definition of SD: “We who came ahead should be able to leave behind a world you can live in.” This is consistent with the Bruntland Report definition: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” Dr. Ofreneo also shared the United Nation’s 5 dimensions of sustainable development, which are the basis of the SDG: People, Planet, Prosperity, Partnership, and Peace.  To me, the most important takeaway from Dr. Ofreneo’s presentation was that sustainable development requires institutional and structural changes. This, I think, is heavily linked to the integration of sustainable development goals to the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022 and the long term aspiration of Ambisyon Natin 2040. For plenary session 2.2, this was discussed by Ms. Girlie Grace Casimiro of the National Economic Development Authority, the head agency for the Philippines’ commitment to SDG. During the briefing, she showed the strategy framework of the PDP 2017-2022, and how the SDGs were embedded in it. She highlighted that the agency will be pushing to do the same for the subsequent PDPs in order to realize Ambisyon Natin 2040:  “matatag, maginhawa, at panatag na buhay.”

PDP 2017-2022 Framework shown with the SDGs embedded.

The final plenary session was delivered by a familiar face in the sexual and reproductive health advocacy, Commissioner Perci Cendana of the National Youth Commission, who pointed out two of the most pressing health challenges in young people – the rising numbers of HIV and teen pregnancy. Commissioner Cendana reminded young people of the basics of rights-based approach: that the government is the duty bearer while the youth are rights holder. However, he also encouraged young people to be more proactive and take a duty bearer role in their development.

In the afternoon, the participants joined different breakout sessions depending on their interest. Naturally, I gravitated towards health – after a bit of screw-up with my application, that is. Totally my fault, and I’d like to thank the people at SDSN-Youth for letting me join the session which I really wanted!

The first speaker was a familiar face – Dr. Joseph Singh from the UNFPA. He provided a briefer on the various health problems young people face. The trend was repeated: high rates of HIV and teen pregnancy. One of major problems, he mentioned, was the unmet need for family planning. “We cannot solve teen pregnancy with health interventions alone,” Dr. Singh emphasized. This reminded me of a lesson from my online class on women’s health and rights: that biomedical problems are not necessarily solved by just biomedical solutions. “When you are rights-based, you can’t go wrong.” Dr Singh reminded the young audience.

The final speaker for the day was Ms. Chi Vallido, of the Forum for Family Planning and Development, Inc. Her talk is a bit more personal for me, as she relayed the struggles of Reproductive Health Law advocates. It took more than 16 years for the country to have the RH Law, but even now it faces certain challenges, such as budget cuts and the TRO on contraceptives. It was a good lesson for all advocates: the fighting just doesn’t stop and it takes dedication and commitment to continue doing what we can for those who need it most.

The talks were followed by a quick workshop. I was, of course, grouped with other health care professionals. We explored problems related to health and came up with three challenges: the lack of enforcement of existing laws, the lack of focus on primary health care, and the lack of coordination among health care workers. It was an exhilarating mental exercise to be sure. I am also glad that my fellow International Youth Council member, Dexter Galban, was at the event. It was great way to flex the brain and fire up the neurons, to look at these problems from a biomedical perspective, but without disregarding the effects of politics and economy in health care.

The day was long and mentally stimulating (albeit exhausting) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I am especially hopeful, after seeing so many young people come together to talk about the future we want – a future where prosperity is enjoyed by all, where race, gender, and economic status aren’t hindrance to justice, and where our children will still be able to enjoy the resources our planet provides.#