Women’s rights group
call for immediate investigation on sexual harassment, slavery and
strip search in jails
By TANGGOL BAYI
August
28, 2011
QUEZON CITY –
Women’s rights group today supported the call urging the Bureau of
Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the Department of Interior and
Local Government (DILG) to immediately act and look into allegations
of sexual harassment, acts of slavery and other discriminatory
practices against women prisoners and their visitors in jail
facilities.
“Reports on women
inmates in Philippine National Police Custodial Center at Camp Crame
were being taken out of their cells at night and were forced to sit
with jail officers during their drinking spree are disturbing enough
because it shows the vulnerability of these women to these forms of
sexual harassment. There are also additional reports that the women
prisoners were also required to massage male jail guards and wash
their clothes. These acts of slavery and sexual harassment should stop
and the jail guards and officials responsible or those who tolerated
these under their watch should be made accountable,” said Cristina
Palabay, Tanggol Bayi spokesperson.
The woman leader also
called on BJMP and DILG officials to adhere to international laws and
rules governing the treatment of prisoners, including women prisoners,
as stated in the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of
Prisoners and in the newly adopted resolution at the United Nations
General Assembly known as the United Nations Rules for the Treatment
of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders.
Palabay also urged
officials in the said agencies to likewise review and scrap from their
manual of operations and/or guidelines the policy and practice of
strip search of visitors of inmates in jail facilities such as those
in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.
“Visitors of political
prisoners and regular inmates have experienced trauma and
psychological abuse, which are sexual in nature, in instances of their
visits to their detained relatives and friends.
Furthermore, their
refusal to be subjected to such searches denies them of entry and
their visitation rights,” she commented.
