Phl human rights activists arrive in Geneva

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine human rights activists have arrived in Geneva, Switzerland in time for the second cycle of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and review of the state of human rights in the Philippines to dispute the Aquino administration’s claims.

The UPR will review the report of the Philippine government on May 29 and measure it against its pledges and commitments during the first cycle of the UPR and when it applied for membership in the UN Human Rights Council.

Fifteen civil society groups belonging to the Philippine UPR Watch are represented by leaders and members of mass organizations in the Philippines, while Filipino expatriates came from the United Kingdom, United States and the Netherlands from the International Committee on the Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICCHRP).

The Philippine UPR Watch continued to lobby with the 71 countries that have signed up to question the Philippine government on its compliance to implement the recommendations put forward by 14 countries during the first cycle of the UPR held in 2008.

The group has also been raising the government’s other unfulfilled commitments and ignored recommendations particularly put forward by the former UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston.

The Philippine UPR Watch said the various missions that the group spoke with have expressed keen interest in and serious concern over the continuous human rights violations committed by the state security forces and its paramilitary groups, including extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances, torture, intense militarization in the farmers’ and indigenous people communities to pave way for mining operations, migrant and children’s rights and the curtailment of other civil and political rights that are perpetrated alongside violations of economic, social and cultural rights.

The delegation has been met by a receptive audience among various foreign missions on their visit to the UN Human Rights Council 13th session of the UPR in Switzerland.

The lobbying effort of the Philippine UPR Watch, composed of 15 human rights and peace groups as well as church and mass organizations from the Philippines and abroad, has been received positively by a diverse list of foreign dignitaries who have commonly expressed keen interest to know more about the real state of human rights in the Philippines.

A significant number of foreign missions that have candidly discussed issues and questions with the various teams of the Philippine UPR Watch delegation have signified their concern about the compliance of the Philippine government with its commitment and pledges to the recommendations on the first cycle of UPR in 2008 as well as other undertakings it should fulfill.

Seventy-one countries have listed up to make statements, ask questions and make recommendations to the Philippine government on a wide array of outstanding human rights issues when the latter comes under scrutiny on Tuesday.

The foreign missions have assured the delegation that they will take into serious consideration all the concerns raised by the Philippine UPR Watch and counter-pose these with the official national report of the Philippine government. 

The recurrent points that surfaced through the face-to-face interactions with the foreign missions include the continuing extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and torture, impunity, the rights of women and children, militarization of indigenous communities and other pressing issues.

Between bilateral meetings with the foreign missions, the delegation has also been meeting with various representatives of the UN special procedures, rapporteurs and treaty monitoring bodies as well as a diverse array of international NGOs.

Karapatan chair Marie Hilao-Enriquez, co-head of Philippine UPR Watch, said that under the administration of President Aquino, the human rights situation in the country has not essentially improved.

She said the human rights violations committed by the previous government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo have not been addressed, and worse, violations continue to occur under Aquino’s administration as institutionalized by the government’s counter-insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan.

Hilao-Enriquez assailed the Aquino government’s downplaying of the human rights cases and misleading claims of compliance to the recommendations of the countries since the UPR meeting in 2008.

She also scored Malacañang on its reported plan to create another task force purportedly to address the continuing violations, saying that the victims do not need another task force on top of others already existing.