The UP Center for Women’s Studies library has announced that it received new books on LGBT and women’s rights from a Swedish human rights organization. The donation was estimated to be worth 7,000 Swedish krona (US$1,000), going to the library’s dedicated LGBT studies collection, the first and only in the country.
The books came all the way from Lund, Sweden, as a gift from the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law’s (RWI), with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
In a thanksgiving ceremony, Carla S. Limcaoco, Honorary Consul General of Sweden to the Philippines, presented the books on behalf of RWI. “The Swedish embassy and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute are happy to support the UP CWS’s work in advancing women’s and LGBT rights through its library, through these books,” she said.
Among the books in the donation were important references in the topic of LGBT human rights and law, including Transgender Rights by Paisley Currah, From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law by Martha Nussbaum, and Sexuality and Human Rights by Helmut Graupner.
“The mission of a library is to connect books and other resources to people,” according to Prof. Eric Manalastas, deputy director of UP CWS, who set up its library’s LGBT studies collection. “Our resources are open to everyone, especially to students, scholars, and advocates of gender justice, women’s rights, and LGBT empowerment.”
Located at Magsaysay Avenue corner Ylanan Road in UP Diliman, Quezon City, the UP CWS library is open to the public Mondays to Fridays, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, for both academic research and recreational reading. Its catalog of more than 2,200 reference books, academic journals, fiction, and graphic novels on gender, sexuality, and LGBT issues can be accessed via http://ilib.upd.edu.ph/.
