YOUTH AND STUDENTS ADVANCING GENDER EQUALITY (YSAGE)
Orientation Paper
We are graduates of youth camps on gender issues, sexuality and prostitution organized by the Coalition against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific (CATW-AP), together with partner organizations. Our lives were changed since then, and most of us organized “echo camps” which produced even more gender advocates, and they, too a
re with us. Having established chapters of the Youth and Students for the Advancement of Gender Equality (YSAGE) in the cities/municipalities/provinces of Cotabato, Puerto Princesa, Negros Occidental, Davao City, Metro Manila, we have sustained the objectives of CATW-AP in organizing the camps and intend to reach more youth and students who will pursue the vision of a world free from sexual exploitation, especially trafficking and prostitution, where there is equality between women and men. We also envision a world free from social, economic and political inequalities. YSAGE also shares CATW-AP’s vision for a world where women can claim their dignity and integrity, exercise their rights as human beings, and work with other persons towards their full humanity and empowerment. Now, we have also have presence in Tawi-tawi, Sulu, Zamboanga City, Cagayan de Oro, Negros Oriental, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Camarines Sur, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Quezon, Laguna, Batangas, Nueva Ecija, Ilocos Sur and the Cordillera Administrative Region. We have come face-to-face with various faces of violence against women and children, some of us having been victims ourselves, and we believe that we should bond together and work towards its elimination. Our membership also consists of young men who seek to redefine masculinity, knowing that at the root of women’s sexual exploitation is the traditional idea of manhood which assumes privilege and superiority over women. We wish to pursue a new idea of masculinity which opposes the use and abuse of women, children, the environment. We want to challenge other men to stop buying and using women, to desist from accumulating sexual privileges and power over others. Most of us are from the grassroots and the marginalized. YSAGE, as such, is duty-bound to oppose militarism, fight the roots of poverty and racial inequality, ethnic and all forms of discrimination which are also causes of exploitation. We believe that homophobia is another form of violence. We are in solidarity with g**s and le****ns, who are denied of their human rights to work, dignity, and others. We believe in a concept of power that is nurtured within, shared and enhanced towards the empowerment of women, especially sexual violence victims, our communities and peoples, which is key to the eradication of trafficking and sexual exploitation. Prostitution is a severe form of human rights violation against women and children.
2. Women’s bodies are not commodities, nor properties of men.
3. Sexuality is an integral and intimate part of human beings that cannot be isolated and commodified.
4. Sexual harassment, r**e, domestic violence, po*******hy and prostitution violate not just the individual woman but all women as a group.
5. Men should not continue to deny their humanity by perpetrating or staying silent as other men perpetrate violence. We, therefore, resolve to:
1. Work together and formalize our national organization, the YSAGE, and vow to strengthen it and ensure its sustainability.
2. Continue to educate other young people and inspire them to create a world free from all forms of exploitation and inequality.
3. Oppose the legalization, or any form of toleration, of prostitution in our country and beyond.
4. Continue to address the demand side of prostitution not only legally but also by educating and organizing men towards directly opposing the system of prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation.
5. Campaign for structural changes that will address the root causes of sexual exploitation -- gender, racial, ethnic, economic and political inequalities.
6. Work in solidarity with victims-survivors of sexual exploitation and other like-minded organizations. Adopted this 23rd day of December, 2009.
