LILA PILIPINA STATEMENT ON NOVEMBER 25, INTERNATIONAL DAY TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

On this day, we remember the three Mirabal sisters, now considered national heroines of the Dominican Republic, for their valiant fight against the Trujillo military dictatorship of the 60s. Their courage in establishing a revolutionary movement led them to become icons of the global women’s movement, in whose memory the International Day to End Violence Against Women was declared by the United Nations.

We also pay homage to women victims of wars of occupation, particularly the so-called “comfort women” whose militant and sustained fight for justice for the military sex slavery and forced labor they experienced in the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army in WWII have made them icons in their own right.

We also remember on this day, the women of Palestine who are still suffering immeasurably under the brutal US-backed Israeli occupation of Palestine, and who are still in the midst of struggle to bring the occupation down. We join the global community calling for an end to the brutal military rule of Israel, and we reject the moves of the imperialist US government to establish an international force in Palestine as nothing but a second phase of the Occupation. We call for justice for the worst forms of human rights violations committed by the Netanyahu regime and the return of the sovereign right of Palestinians to their homeland.

We remember as well the innumerable victims of various forms of violence against women all over the world.

We remember women assaulted by men in uniform such as the 18-year old Filipina recently robbed and raped by members of the Philippine National Police’s Drug Enforcement Group – Special Operations Unit 4A in Cavite, a province south of Manila. We vow to support her struggle for justice as we are aware how doubly hard it can be for women victims of powerful men to attain justice – especially where the perpetrators are themselves the ones supposed to make or implement the law.

While we celebrate advances in the realm of law brought about by decades of militant struggle by women themselves, we also recognize that millions still face the same problem of marginalization, violence and oppression. As long as the social conditions that give rise to women’s oppression remain – militarism, imperialism, feudal-patriarchy – violence against women shall remain a most pressing issue that will plague the lives and futures of girls and women everywhere.

Thus, our clarion call women must renew actions at organizing and building powerful movements that confront the breeding grounds for women’s oppression. Only by bringing down the current structures of power can we truly hope to build a more egalitarian world – a world where women can truly realize their freedom – from all forms of slavery, sexual violence and inequality.