RP urged to enact law banning racial discrimination

MANILA, Philippines – A United Nations body has urged the Philippines to enact a law banning discrimination based on race and ethnicity.

The UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination has also raised concern over the effects of the fighting in Mindanao on indigenous peoples and evacuees.

It recently examined the Philippines’ compliance with the international Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

The body, comprised of experts from 18 countries, reviewed the report submitted by the Philippine government in a two-day session from Aug. 18-19 at the headquarters of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.

It met with a Philippine delegation that included a commissioner from the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and members of civil society.

CHR Commissioner Cecilia Rachel Quisumbing said among the issues discussed in the meeting were the situation of persons affected by combat in Mindanao and other areas in the Philippines, especially those who belong to indigenous peoples’ groups; as well as the issue on proper respect for their ancestral domain.

“This brings another human rights dimension to the renewed combat in the South; not only the rights to life, liberty, property and security of person, but also the need to consciously and effectively protect minority groups,” she said.

During the meeting, the UN body noted the lack of a law that prohibits racial discrimination in the Philippines; the delivery of basic services to minority groups; statistical measurement to track the rights situation of minorities; and unexplained killings, torture, and enforced disappearances of activists belonging to indigenous peoples.

Quisumbing said the CHR found no state policy denying basic services and protection to indigenous peoples but that under the CERD, the state has the obligation to actively take measures to ensure that certain groups are able to fully enjoy their rights.

“These areas of promotion and protection of human rights of minorities are where the CHR feels there is a lot of room for improvement,” she said.

The UN committee’s head expressed hope that the Philippines “will take good account of our comments” as they have commended the country’s efforts in undertaking “good measures in the area of eliminating discrimination,” the CHR said.

The UN body will issue its concluding remarks on the review, including recommendations for the Philippines, when it finishes its session next week.

However, Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Erlinda Basilio and chairman Eugenio Insigne of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, who are part of the Philippine delegation, have asserted that no racial discrimination exists in the Philippines, and that many laws have been enacted protecting indigenous peoples and preventing discrimination against workers.

They reported that the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) was one of the inspirations for the language of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The UN committee urged the Philippines to implement the law fully and to measure its effectiveness, particularly with statistics, according to the CHR.

Quoting Ion Diaconu, a member of the UN body, the CHR said the government delegation was told that the committee has “difficulty accepting statements of absolutely no discrimination from any country,” and urged the government to take measures to make claims “in the light of reality.”

Diaconu also reportedly said that even with the current laws, the treaty requires a general law that protects Philippine indigenous peoples and others under Philippine jurisdiction from racial discrimination.

In her presentation before the UN committee, Quisumbing reported that in the past year of offensives between the Armed Forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf, the CHR regional offices have recorded at least 200,000 people in Surigao del Sur and Lanao del Sur who took refuge in evacuation centers, many of them from indigenous tribes.

She also said that the CHR regional office in the Cordillera Autonomous Region has recorded 17 cases of IP activists killed and one activist who has disappeared.

The Philippines ratified the CERD almost 42 years ago, on Sept. 15, 1967. Thus, the Philippine government is obliged to implement all the provisions of the treaty and to report to the CERD Committee every two years.

Quisumbing explained that every human rights treaty has a corresponding UN committee created to monitor country compliance with the treaty through consideration of reports from government and information from other sources.

While there is no way to enforce the recommendations that the committee makes, Quisumbing stressed that member states nevertheless are bound to give the recommendations due consideration and later explain reasons for the non-implementation of those recommendations. –Katherine Adraneda (The Philippine Star)