CHR chief urges GMA to solve political killings

Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairwoman Purificacion Quisumbing asked President Arroyo yesterday to be actively involved in actions being undertaken by the government to address the spate of political killings and enforced disappearances in the country today.

Quisumbing made the appeal as she raised the prospect of the Philippines facing a "Universal Peer Review" soon, or before the termination of the country’s chairmanship of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in May next year.

According to Quisumbing, current government efforts amidst the increasing incidence of political killings and enforced disappearances in the country today are "still vague" as their effectiveness are "not yet clear."

Quisumbing said although Mrs. Arroyo denounced the political killings in her recent State of the Nation Address, concrete measures are still imperative such as the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for the killings.

Quisumbing pressed the government to prove that the political killings and perceived culture of impunity in the assassinations and abductions are not the policy of the administration. She urged the government to immediately take concrete actions, as these human rights issues will definitely be raised before the peer review at the UNHRC.

"So what now?" asked Quisumbing, apparently referring to the specific actions to be taken by the government on political killings and enforced disappearances.

"The government should do something... the government should stop these killings. The cases (of political killings) are growing," she noted. "It is very, very critical for (the government) to be prepared to answer these issues before the UNHRC," she said.

Quisumbing explained that the peer review is a "universal scrutiny" of every country on the delivery of its pledges to the UNHRC, and on their compliance to international human rights treaties they acceded to.

She noted that the pledges made by the Philippines enabled its election to the UNHRC.

"The Philippines, as among the UN member-countries that won one-year term to the UNHRC, would be one of the ‘guinea pigs’ that will be subjected to the universal peer review soon," Quisumbing said. "The government should really prepare for it."

Earlier, Quisumbing said that the Philippines might probably be blacklisted in the UN if it continues to fail reporting its human rights status to the international treaty monitoring bodies.

Specifically, she noted, the Philippines has failed to comply with reporting systems involved in seven international covenants. These are covenants on civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; against torture; racial discrimination; children’s rights; elimination of discrimination against women; and rights of all migrant workers and families.

"The government should understand that ratification of international treaties has corresponding responsibilities," Quisumbing pointed out.

"We are way past deadlines in some," she said, adding that the Philippines has not submitted any report since the treaty was ratified.

According to Quisumbing, the report should come from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Justice, which chairs the Presidential Human Rights Committee, but which meetings Mrs. Arroyo reportedly hardly attended.

If the country fails to address all these concerns, Quisumbing said that the image of the Philippines as a human rights advocate would be diminished.

She even raised the possibility that the country’s failure to adhere to its commitments to human rights treaties would be used as basis for other countries to reconsider its assistance to the Philippine government.

Leftist activists suspect the government of involvement in the series of killings of left-wing activists that leftists and human rights advocates charged was part of a military-backed campaign.