CHR: Duterte's rape joke a violation of Magna Carta of Women

"The CHR, in the dispositive part of the resolution, found the words and actions of Mayor Duterte to be discriminatory of women that is enjoined by the Magna Carta of Women," the resolution released on Wednesday said.

 

The CHR asked both the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government to consider taking appropriate measures against Duterte for his violation.

 

CHR Chair Chito Gascon said that it is the agency's constitutional duty to protect human rights and call out violators regardless of their position in society.

 

"The Commission believes that this mandate does not exculpate Mayor Duterte from acts committed or words uttered in the course of the electoral campaign when it involves breaches to the fundamental rights, in this case, the prohibition of gender-based discrimination and violence," he added.

 

To prevent similar incidents from happening, the CHR recommended that the CSC study the passage of a resolution that would require all government officials to undergo yearly gender sensitivity seminars and adopt measures to eliminate prejudice on the inferiority of one sex over the other.

 

It also asked Congress to revisit the Magna Carta of Women to include punitive sanctions for direct violations, among others.

 

Last April 20, several women's groups filed a complaint against Duterte before the CHR after his remarks about Australian lay minister Jacqueline Hamill who was raped and killed in 1989. Duterte made the comment during a campaign rally where he likened the 36-year-old Hamill to an American actress. He said that as mayor "he should have been first."