On September 21

(credit)

On this day in ...
... 1972 (40 years ago today), was the date affixed to Proclamation No. 1081, by which President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines. The decree would not be lifted until 1981. An account of the events leading to martial law may be found at here, the website of current government, led by President Benigno Aquino III, the son of Marcos' political opponent at the time. The father would be assassinated at the Manila airport in 1983.

(Prior September 21 posts posts are here, here, here, here, and here.)

On September 6

On this day in ...
...1522 (490 years ago today), a Spanish ship returned to home port with only a 22-man crew aboard. "The rest had died, deserted or, in some cases, had been left behind as unworthy of sharing in the spoils of the rich cargo of spices." Among those who had died in the fleet of 5 ships that had set sail 3 years earlier was the explorer Ferdinand Magellan, killed in a battle in the Philippines. The ship, Victoria, thus became the 1st ever to circumnavigate the world; in recognition of the achivement, Spain's king bestowed on the captain "a coat of arms bearing a globe and the Latin phrase Primus circumdedisti me, or 'You Went Around Me First.'" (credit for photo of replica of Victoria, at a museum in Chile, a stop along the ship's global sojourn)

(Prior September 6 posts are here, here, here, here, and here.)

On March 20

On this day in ...
... 1952 (60 years ago today), by a vote of 66 to 10, the U.S. Senate gave its advice and consent to the U.S.-Japan peace treaty. It had been nearly 7 years since Japan's surrender ended World War II combat between the 2 countries. The Senate also approved 3 related security pacts, which established mutual defense obligations between the United States and, respectively, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and the Philippines.

(Prior March 20 posts are here, here, here, here, and here.)

Philippines embraces the ICC ...

In a flurry of events, the Philippines has demonstrated full support of the International Criminal Court:
► On August 23, the Philippines' Senate concurred in the May 6 President's May 6 approval of the Rome Statute of the ICC. Preceding the 17-to-1 vote were sponsoring addresses by 2 Senators -- Miriam Defensor-Santiago (below left) (credit), the Chairperson of the Senate Subcommittee on the ICC about whom IntLawGrrls previously posted, and Loren Legarda (top left) (credit), the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
► On Tuesday, Legarda delivered the instrument of ratification at U.N. headquarters in New York. It is set to enter into force on November 1; on that date the Philippines will become the 117th state party to the ICC.
►By the time of that New York ceremony, the Philippines already had a new ICC judge in mind. On August 26, the government announced that it would nominate Santiago for judicial election at the December session of the Assembly of States Parties. As Beth Van Schaack posted, all candidates named till then had been men, and onlyone had expertise in human rights/humanitarian law, as opposed to criminal law. Santiago's biography manifests her expertise in the former area of law. So too the speech she gave on the day of her nomination, entitled "Some Problems and Approaches in the Relation of National Law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Application of International Humanitarian Law."
These shows of support give international criminal justice a new anchor in east Asia -- as the grey expanse in the map at right (credit) demonstrates, a region marked by a dearth of ICC states parties.

On June 19

On this day in ...
... 1941 (70 years ago today), a girl was born into the family of a judge Paoay, Ilocos Norte, the Philippines. In 2002, she would become a judge on the country's highest court. Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales (right), who'd practiced at a law firm and in the Department of Justice before joining the judiciary in 1983, became "the first woman magistrate to administer ... the Oath of Office of a President of the Republic of the Philippines" when she swore in President Benigno Aquino III on June 30, 2010. (photo credit)

(Prior June 19 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

On June 8

On this day in ...
... 1977, the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), and Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), were signed in Geneva, Switzerland. Among the innovations were detailed provisions on treatment of persons in the power of a party to international conflict, in Protocol I, and the explicit extension of international humanitarian law protections to non-international conflicts, in Protocol II. (image credit) Today the treaties have 170 and 165 states parties, respectively. Countries that have signed but not ratified: as to Protocol I, Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, and the United States; as to Protocol II, all of those just listed with the exception of the Philippines.

(Prior June 8 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

On April 3

On this day in ...
... 2001 (10 years ago today), in consolidated cases captioned Estrada v. Desierto and Estrada v. Macapagal-Arroyo, the Supreme Court of the Philippines (right) (photo credit) stripped a former President of immunity from suit on charges of corruption, and further recognized the legitimacy of respondent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (prior IntLawGrrls posts), who had succeeded the former President, Joseph Estrada, in office the previous January. Macagapal-Arroyo would serve until mid-2010.

(Prior April 3 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

Beyond Libya's Borders

With the news media focused on the estimated 180,000 migrants who have fled Libya in the past 10 days, it's a good moment to think about the impact of the crisis on migrants beyond Libya's borders.
To start, the unrest has cut off a World Food Programme supply chain used to feed tens of thousands of Darfurian refugees and displaced persons in Chad. Food supplies that had for many years been discharged at Benghazi port in Libya have been re-routed to Port Sudan, at great expense and with questionable outcomes, as aid convoys now must traverse Darfur to reach their intended recipients. The consequences for these refugees are sure to be dire.
The instability in Egypt may also obstruct efforts to protect migrants in that country against human rights abuses. Haaretz reports that the number of African migrants entering Israel through Egypt has dropped precipitously in the wake of the crisis. The concern here, given credible and frequent reports of abuse of African migrants by smugglers in the Sinai, is that many Africans are being held for ransom in the desert. Though the Egyptian government's efforts to crack down on organized crime in the Sinai were insufficient at the best of times, the current political situation has likely resulted in even less attention being paid to the situation of these migrants.
On the development side of the ledger, the loss of migrant worker jobs throughout North Africa will have global repercussions. The widely reported repatriation of many foreign workers in Libya will result in the loss of millions of dollars of remittances. Not only current but also future jobs are at stake; the Philippines and Indonesia have suspended the sending of their national workers to Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Though this decision is to be applauded, it will come at great cost to families in need of remittance funds.
While there's much to celebrate in North Africa, and much assistance needed for migrants escaping the unrest in Libya, the impact of the crisis on migrants and their families will be felt far beyond Libya's borders.

On February 22

On this day in ...

... 1986 (25 years ago today), what soon would come to be called the "People Power" movement began in the Philippines. (It's an anniversary with special resonance this year of "North African People Power.") Precipitating events was a Presidential election after which longtime dictator Ferdinand Marcos (prior posts) refused to step down despite contentions that his opponent, Corazon Aquino, had won. On this day couple "senior members" of his government called for Marcos to step down. Soon "hundreds of thousands of civilians responded to calls for an uprising" -- one that would force the autocrat and his wife, Imelda Marcos, to flee (leaving behind her 2,700 pairs of shoes). (photo credit) He died in Hawaii in 1989; Aquino in Manila in 2009. Imelda Marcos opened a museum filled with her shoes in 2001; she remains mired in corruption lawsuits to this day.

(Prior February 22 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

Impact of Resolution 1325 on peace accords

(Our thanks to IntLawGrrls for the opportunity to contribute this guest post)

With last October's tenth anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (2000), the resolution’s effectiveness is coming under intense scrutiny. (image credit) In our recent research on the impact of the resolution on the text of peace agreements, we make some significant findings about the impact of 1325 on peace agreement drafting.
(Our research dataset is available in full here. Our methodology, coding decisions, findings and our fuller analysis may be found in ‘Peace Agreements or ‘Pieces of Paper’? The Impact of UNSC Resolution 1325 on Peace Processes and their Agreements’, our article published in the October 2010 edition of International & Comparative Law Quarterly.)

Peace agreements can play a crucial role in setting post-conflict priorities and shaping the internal constitutional order. Women often attempt to influence agreement texts in pursuit of gender equality, in an effort to influence the key roadmap to the political and legal future that will shape their lives. For these reasons Resolution 1325 specifically targeted peace negotiations and agreements in paragraph 8, which calls on all actors involved, when negotiating and implementing peace agreements, to adopt a gender perspective, with particular reference to post-conflict needs. The aim of this perspective is to support local women’s peace initiatives as well as the human rights of women with relation to constitutional reform. (Prior IntLawGrrls posts on this resolution may be found here.)
In our research project, we were interested in whether the texts of peace agreements post-1325 showed evidence of the resolution’s impact. Did peace agreements signed after the resolution contain more references to women and gender equality than those signed before the resolution? If so, what was the nature of these provisions? What difference did involvement of the United Nations in the negotiation of the agreement make regarding, firstly, the number, and secondly, the nature, of peace agreement references to women and gender? Were peace agreements more likely to address the specific issues for women and girls identified in paragraph 8?
In summary we found:
► Only 16% of peace agreements contain references to women. But references to women have increased significantly since the passing of Resolution 1325, from 11% to 27% of agreements.
► This rise is more dramatic for agreements in which the UN had a third-party role (from 4% to 12%) than it is for agreements which did not involve the UN in such a role (from 7% to 14%).
► However, both before and after Resolution 1325 women are more likely to be referenced in agreements in which the UN is not named as a third party. The more marked increase in references to women in ‘UN’ agreements must therefore be understood in a context where such agreements were less likely to reference women prior to Resolution 1325.
► Peace agreement references to women are qualitatively often poor. They constitute scattered references to women, some of which contravene provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Only on rare occasions do these references illustrate good practice.

Our data
Our study involved 585 peace agreements signed since between 1 January 1990 and 1 May 2010. We began by identifying provisions making explicit reference to ‘women’, ‘gender’, ‘widows’ or ‘girls’ and to ‘sexual violence’, or named forms of sexual violence such as ‘rape’.
We separately coded whether the UN was involved as some type of third party to the peace agreement. This enabled us to question the extent to which the UN has played a role in implementing its own normative standards. UN third party involvement was defined using the agreement text and documenting whether the UN, a UN agency, or a UN representative was party or signatory, mediator or facilitator, observer, witness or negotiator to the agreement.
In addition we undertook a qualitiative analysis of the reference to women.

Our Analysis
The overall finding that only 16% of peace agreements make any sort of reference to women is disappointing.

Even the higher figure for post-Resolution 1325 references to women of 27% (up from 11%) indicates a long way to go before peace agreements systematically include references to women. However, it does seem that the 2000 Security Council measure is having some effect, and particularly where the UN is involved.

Our qualitative review of the nature of the peace agreement references indicates that many of these references are unsubstantial.

There is little evidence of systematic inclusion of women in peace agreement texts, or systematic treatment of issues across peace agreements within conflicts. Moreover, some of the references in our database are, at best, ambiguous in terms of feminist gains, for example: the use of quotas which not only encourage but limit the participation of women (Bangladesh/Chittagong); references to ensuring women’s ‘moral integrity’ (Philippines); references to women as mothers to be targeted for early prisoner release (Nicaragua). Some strong textual provisions do however exist, often in countries that also have actions plans (see for example, Uganda).

Our conclusions
We suggest that further thought must be given to the strategies and barriers to effective implementation of Resolution 1325. Our findings regarding the resolution’s effectiveness with respect to peace negotiations and peace agreement texts suggest the need for further thinking on:
► What constitutes a ‘gender perspective’ in a peace agreement.
► How Resolution 1325 is being taken forward by organizations other than the UN is required, particularly as their role is increasing.
► Whether a ‘gender justice v peace’ dilemma exists where gender-specific concerns of women are left off the table, not due to oversight, lack of expertise, or lack of commitment, but because of concerns that inclusion would make it more difficult for the parties to reach agreement on other matters or destabilize any agreement reached.
► What constitutes good practice in terms of inserting ‘a gender perspective’ in peace agreement texts.
► How to retain space for women to re-envision peace processes in a transformative way, while influencing texts as they arise within the processes in which women are engaged.

We would encourage people to look at and use the research, and to contact us (c.bell@ulster.ac.uk, cf.orourke@ulster.ac.uk) with any response they may have.

On November 22

On this day in ...
... 1913, Cecilia Muñoz-Palma (right) was born in Bauan, Batangas, the Philippines.
She was valedictorian at St. Scholastica's College and earned a bachelor of laws degree from the University of the Philippines in 1937 -- the same year that she placed 1st on her country's bar examination. She founded the Woman Lawyers’ Association of the Philippines (WLAP) Free Legal Aid Clinic. In 1954, she earned a master of laws degree at Yale. That same year she became a local judge in the Philippines. In 1968 she served as President of the Philippines' Constitutional Commission, which drafted the 1987 Constitution, and also was elevated to the country's Court of Appeals. She served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines -- the 1st woman on that high court -- from 1973 until her 65th birthday, on this day in 1978. Among her publications is a 2001 collection of speeches, entitled Mirror of My Soul. Justice Muñoz-Palma died in 2006.


(Prior November 22 posts are here, here, and here.)

3d woman on "15-man" bench

The newest member of the Philippines' highest court is a woman, though you'd never know it from the Philippine Star news lead announcing that President Benigno Aquino this week administered

the oath of office of his first appointee to the 15-man Supreme Court ...

The newest Justice is Maria Lourdes Aranal-Sereno (left), Executive Director of a thinktank, the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center. (photo credit) Aranal-Sereno served as co-counsel in 2 transnational matters resolved in favor of her client, the Philippines: Fraport, before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington, D.C., and PIATCO, before the International Chamber of Commerce-International Court of Arbitration in Singapore. She earned her law degree cum laude from the University of the Philippines, followed by an LL.M. from the University of Michigan Law School. Aranal-Sereno won appointment over 5 other nominees, all men.

With the arrival of Aranal-Sereno, 3 out of 15 Justices are now women; the other 2 women are Justices Conchita Carpio-Morales (far right) and Teresita J. Leonardo-De Castro (near right).

Gender equality & the G-20bis

This year's official photo from the G-20 summit, held this past weekend in Toronto, Canada, looks pretty much like last year's from London, England: there's German Chancellor Angela Merkel in orange, Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in white, and standing 2 rows behind her, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, till tomorrow the President of the Philippines. Et alia. Another G-20 country now also has a woman leader, but Julia Gillard, Prime Minister only since Friday, sent Australia's Treasurer, Wayne Swan (top middle).

In passing: Corazon Aquino

(In passing marks the memory of a person featured in IntLawGrrls) In Manila yesterday, Corazon Aquino died from cancer at age 76. Noting her role in a milestone event on February 25, 1986, we posted a while back:

Corazon Aquino (left) was sworn in as the 1st woman President of the Philippines. The move culminated what was called the People Power Revolution, which sent into Hawaiian exile longtime dictator Ferdinand Marcos. He'd threatened to stage a ceremony swearing himself back into power; he changed course, however, after the United States withdrew its support of him. Aquino, who had entered politics after the 1983 killing of her husband Benigno, a dissident leader, held office until 1992.

The tenure of Asia's 1st woman President was difficult, as detailed in her obituary -- not in the least because of the 6 coup attempts she withstood in as many years. Nonetheless, the person who posted this video clip of her swearing-in called it among "proudest moments in Philippine history." Also worth a look: this video clip of her calling for Marcos' resignation. For her role in returning democracy to the Philippines -- a country that had been subjected to Marcos' dictatorial rule for 2 decades -- she will not soon be forgotten.

On June 15

On this day in ...
... 1945, Miriam Defensor Santiago (left), a Senator in the Philippines, was born in Iloilo in that country. As a child, she excelled in school, finishing college on time despite suffering a severe illness. She went on to graduate from the University of the Philippines College of Law in 1969. She continued taking courses, and at the age of 50 completed a master's degree in religious studies at the Maryhill School of Theology. For her work as a crusader against corruption in the Philippines she received a Ramon Magsaysay Award, known colloquially as the Asian Nobel Prize, in 1988. Her resume also includes employment as a lecturer, professor, Quezon City regional trial judge, and Legal Officer to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1992, Santiago campaigned to be President of the Philippines, on the slate of the People's Reform Party, which she founded. She lost, claiming "electoral irregularities." She ran for president again in 1998, and again lost. Having served as a Senator from 1995 to 2001, she was re-elected in 2004. In 2008, Santiago was the Philippines' nominee for the International Court of Justice. She won in the United Nations' General Assembly but not in its Security Council.
... 1954 (55 years ago today), Paul Rusesabagina (below left) was born in Gitarama, Rwanda. He was a hotel manager at the Hôtel des Mille Collines during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. As a result of his efforts, 1,268 refugees survived under his protection at the hotel. The movie Hotel Rwanda (2004) was inspired by his actions. In his memoir, An Ordinary Man (2007), and in interviews, he's said:

I was a hotel manager. I just kept on being a hotel manager. If to be a hero is to remain who you are, everyone would be a hero.

Rusesabagina began the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation to aid victims of the genocide by giving direct aid to orphans and by encouraging a "Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission." Today, he lives in Belgium with his wife, Tatiana, and their 6 children. (photo credit)

(Prior June 15 posts are here and here.)

Regulating the Domestic Sphere: The Role of States

Given the potential for abuse and widespread lack of regulation, working conditions in the domestic sphere are particularly perilous. Add temporary or nonexistent immigration status to the mix, and the situation becomes even more dire. Though the examples in this post focus on the situation of migrant domestic laborers, largely Asian and female, who work in the Middle East, such abuse has been amply documented in the United States and presumably occurs with regularity around the globe. Stories abound of exploitation ranging from unpaid wages to rape; while awareness of these issues has been raised in recent years, legal frameworks for protection in states that receive such workers are often non-existent or underenforced. Moreover, labor-sending states should be playing a larger role in establishing and enforcing the rights of migrant domestic laborers.

Receiving states are an obvious starting point for protection frameworks, but domestic workers are often excluded from labor law protections. In Lebanon, for example, which hosts over 200,000 migrant domestic workers, mainly Filipina and Sri Lankan women, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Labor Organization have only just succeeded in creating a common set of standards, in the form of a unified contract, to protect migrant domestic workers. The contract includes basic rights to adequate food and clothing and a private place to sleep, limits workdays to 10 hours per day and 6 days per week, and requires employers to provide monthly paychecks as well as health insurance for domestic employees. Yet the employer still has the right to hold workers' passports, may terminate employment at will, and most importantly faces no enforcement mechanism for violations of the contract. While uniform standards are preferable to the void that existed previously, rights of domestic migrant workers must be given enforceable legal status before they will be taken seriously by employers.

Sending states can also play a role in protecting their workers abroad. Given the financial benefits migrant worker-exporting states reap in the form of remittances -- for example, in 2007, Bangladeshis working in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and Filipinos working in the Arab States each sent home over $2 billion while Sri Lankans remitted $3 billion -- they should recognize the importance of protecting the physical and psychological well-being of these workers. I've blogged here about the Philippines' creative program to protect migrant workers abroad, which offers support to laborers prior to departure, during their work stint, and for repatriation. At the other end of the spectrum, some nations ban their citizens from working in countries notorious for abusing their workers or ban women from participating in migrant labor flows -- a dangerous step likely to push migrant workers underground and eliminate access to protective services. Given the failure of the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers to attract signatories from migrant-receiving states, sending states might negotiate bilateral treaties protecting the rights of migrant workers, ensuring that those working in the domestic sphere are covered by labor laws. Short of a such a serious commitment, states could ameliorate the situation of their workers abroad through relatively simple programs such as pre-departure rights presentations to migrants and effective outreach and support programs within embassies and consulates.

On January 13

On this day in ...

... 1993, a criminal court in Berlin announced its abandonment of the trial of former East German leader Erich Honecker, who was 80 years old an suffering from terminal liver cancer. Honecker had been charged with "manslaughter over the deaths of defectors fleeing by way of the Berlin wall," which separated the city during the Cold War. Soon after the trial was aborted, Honecker flew to Chile, where he died a year and a half later. (credit for 1986 photo of Berlin Wall)

... 1933, President Herbert Hoover vetoed a bill to give the Philippines independence from the United States. Within hours the House of Representatives overrode the veto; however, the Senate did not so act, and so the bill failed. In his veto message, the New York Times reported, Hoover (right) suggested "that a plebiscite for freedom be deferred for fifteen or twenty years" in the Philippines, lest "'economic and social chaos'" ensue.

On August 12

On this day in ...

... 1833 (175 years ago today), Chicago was founded. About 350 people lived in the town, which spanned a 3/8-square-mile area that still is at the heart of the city's Loop. Its name is a Native American word, but its meaning is uncertain -- some say it meant "wild onion" or "skunk"; others, "strong" or "great." Today Chicago (flag above right) -- the 3d largest U.S. city, with a population of 2.8 million living in a 237-square-mile area -- is vying with other cities in the world to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

... 1898 (110 years ago today), at 4:23 p.m., representatives of Spain and the United States signed an armistice ending the Spanish-American War. As part of the agreement, Spain gave up its claim to Cuba, agreed to U.S. occupation of the Philippines, and ceded Puerto Rico and other colonial holdings to the United States. (map credit)

On July 4

On this day in ...
... 1976, a contingent of about 200 Israeli commandoes rescued 100 hostages at Entebbe airport in Uganda and then flew them to Israel (at right; photo credit). The commandoes waged a gunfight for more than half an hour; 20 Ugandan soldiers, 7 hijackers, the commandoes' leader, and 3 hostages were killed. The operation ended a crisis that began when an Air France flight, bound from Paris to Israel via Athens, was hijacked on June 27.
... 1946, the United States granted independence to the Philippines (flag below left). But because the U.S. grant came with strings attached, Filipinos were not happy with celebrating on that date, and thus in 1962 Independence Day was switched to June 12, the date that revolutionaries in 1898 proclaimed independence from Spain.

On this day

On February 25, ...
... 1986, in Manila, Corazon Aquino (left) was sworn in as the 1st woman President of the Philippines. The move culminated what was called the People Power Revolution, which sent into Hawaiian exile longtime dictator Ferdinand Marcos. He'd threatened to stage a ceremony swearing himself back into power; he changed course, however, after the United States withdrew its support of him. Aquino, who had entered politics after the 1983 killing of her husband Benigno, a dissident leader, held office until 1992. Litigation stemming from human rights violations during the Marcos regime continues; indeed, as we've posted, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear 1 such case. Argument in Republic of Philippines v. Pimentel is set for March 17, 2008.
... 1956, in an effort to dispel "the 'Stalin cult' that has held Soviet citizens in its thrall for 30 years," Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev "denounced Joseph Stalin as a brutal despot" in a speech before the 20th Congress of the Communist Party.