The New York Permanent Mission’s engagement on the undesirable involvement of men in the United Nations campaign against sexual violence and trafficking has attained an unstoppable momentum. Recently we met with a young woman advocate for adopting a UN resolution against sexual violence, focusing entirely on it without wasting time on finding and addressing the socio-economic-political-cultural roots of this peculiarly male proclivity that makes them unfit for most functions of government involving some degree of power over women and women’s concerns—although I did mention that in Davao when he was mayor, President Duterte did the unthinkable yet commonsensical by opening women’s desks in every police station to handle crimes against or perpetrated by women to avoid sexual exploitation by persons in authority. On Tuesday, the Mission had occasion to intervene from the floor with Roseny Fangco of the New York Permanent Mission to the United Nations. The event was a reception on “Women and Girls First: Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies in Asia and the Pacific,” September 4, 2018, the United Nations.
“There is something very troubling about violence against women and sex trafficking that occur during humanitarian emergencies. We expect compassion and generosity for the afflicted, empathy at least.
“We are but putty in nature’s hands and could ourselves be victims of natural calamities like what struck our sisters. And yet, we come across stories of violence and exploitation: women robbed, assaulted, raped; worse, sold for sex and labor. Nature’s wrath took their livelihood and their loved ones—and swept them into the hands of men who robbed them of dignity. It is even more astounding when these evils are committed by those whose job is to help the distressed – responders, aid workers, emergency service personnel and others who come forward as saviors and then come across as predators. These people deserve the sternest punishment, and frankly it is a matter of total indifference to me if it is within the law or not.
“My country is in the wrong place—the “emergency belt”— except it also has a huge body of water between itself and a big power with big ambitions. Numerous and increasingly ferocious typhoons because of climate change visit us each year and we cannot slam the door in their face. They will come in. All we can do is brace.
“Typhoon Haiyan wiped out villages and killed more than 6,300 people in 2013. There is not a year but floods strike parts of my country. Earthquakes are more frequent. Imagine if every time there is a natural disaster and communities need to be evacuated, women get sold for sex. This would give a whole new meaning to natural calamity by the inescapable addition of human perversity.
“But unlike the weather, we can do something about it—with the help of partners like United Nations Population Fund and civil society. We just heard about best practices and lessons learned. We need to integrate these lessons into actionable programs—in practical terms official, governmental; it means using public authority—the writ, puissance and wherewithal of states which are still the most effective organization for the protection of populations.
“This is why we need more women in government, not just flatteringly in Cabinet posts; but in frontline positions wherever the vulnerable are preyed on. Natural calamity is not the cause of violence and trafficking of women. Neither is conflict, scarcity and poverty. The cause of these enormities, whether perpetrated in times of calm or emergencies, is the evil in men who see and treat women as nothing more than objects of lust and commerce to be discarded after use. The helplessness and despair that abound in emergency situations are fuel for this evil; the more helpless the woman, the easier to lure, and the more gratifying to abuse.
“There is something about men that qualifies them the least for sensitive positions involving the protection of women in the most vulnerable situations. Where a woman is drawn by compassion; a man might be driven only by passion—a sickness contracted after the Fall.
“We have to change this thinking; burn this evil if we must. But how? Here is a problem worse than drugs because no one, man or woman, can be addicted to slavery. So it should be easier to solve. But as we don’t shoot drug addicts we can’t say the same about sex addicts; the consumers of sex trafficking—many of them in positions of authority.
“I’ve said this before: for as long as power in the world is held mostly by men, and security forces are stocked and officered mostly by men—even if women are as good if not better at the job—sex trafficking and violence against women will stay. But if we empower women, not rhetorically or with token positions, but by putting women into positions of real power and authority and at the frontlines of the battle against gender-based violence, then there will be change.
“Elections won’t do it; that’s the problem with democracy. Appointment to authority and conferment of real power is the best way. Here in the UN and in the government of every member state. Thank you.”