UN Human Rights Council adopts Phl review report

MANILA, Philippines – The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted the report on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Philippines, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

The council adopted the report by consensus on Sept. 20 and completed the process that started in May 2012 when the Philippine delegation, headed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, presented its human rights situation in the country.

The Human Rights Council Working Group also adopted by consensus the draft report on the Philippines during the May session, and formally adopted the report in plenary.

During the adoption, Deputy Executive Secretary Teofilo Pilando Jr., from the Office of the Executive which chairs the Presidential Human Rights Committee, highlighted measures taken or are being taken by the Philippines to fulfill its commitment to implement recommendations from member states.

Pilando, head of the Philippine delegation, told the Human Rights Council that the Philippines accepted 62 out of the 88 recommendations from states.

He added the 25 other recommendations that mainly pertain to treaties and conventions are being studied in view of ongoing legislative and judicial processes related to the recommendations.

Pilando said consultations with non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders are also ongoing.

“(This is) in deference to our system of government that gives credence to the independence and integrity of our legislature and judiciary, the two other separate but co-equal branches of the Philippine government which, under a liberal democracy, work together and decide on important policies and programs of government,” Pilando explained.

“It is (also) to ensure that the level of commitment we have as soon as pen touches paper becomes whole and unconditional, especially in harmonizing the substance and spirit of these treaties and conventions with our domestic laws and legal mechanisms, thus ensuring effective implementation,” he added.

Pilando said the NGO and civil society participation in the UPR monitoring process is a testament to the “the current vibrancy permeating our civil society sector that fully allows the exercise of freedom of thought, speech, and advocacy, and the realization of the objectives of collective governance.”

On the issue of unexplained killings and enforced disappearance, Pilando said the Philippines had created a multi-sectoral national monitoring mechanism that will look into the progress of cases involving unexplained killings, enforced disappearance, and torture.

“This mechanism will be chaired by the Commission on Human Rights, with government agencies and CSOs and NGOs as members. It shall ensure the resolution of such cases by stressing institutional accountabilities,” Pilando said.

“The Philippine government expects that this mechanism shall encourage human rights defenders to boost their policy of engagement with the State under this mechanism, or reconsider their position of non-engagement as the case may be, especially so that this will greatly assist in case build-up,” he said.

Pilando stressed the strong resolve of the government to promote accountability through measures that will end unexplained killings and enforced disappearances in the country.

“My government is committed to investigate all cases that have allegedly occurred under the current administration, and for validated cases, to bring those responsible to justice. We will also revisit and continue to investigate the other cases that happened during the past regime, and, when validated, prosecute them,” Pilando said.

On the labor front, Pilando reported to the Human Rights Council that the Philippines has recently ratified two key international conventions, the Maritime Labor Convention and the ILO Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. These conventions set the universal standard of protection of human rights of seafarers and domestic workers.

He also reported the Batas Kasambahay (Domestic Workers Bill), the enabling law for ILO Convention 189, is now for consideration by the bilateral committee of Congress prior to enactment into law.

The Kasambahay Bill recognizes the special vulnerability of household workers to various kinds of abuse and requires a written contract to govern the employer-employee relationship. It mandates a realistic minimum wage, prevents bonded labor, physical, sexual, mental and economic abuse of household workers and provides for social security benefits.

On social and economic rights, Pilando said the Philippines would continue to respect and defend these rights as basic human rights.

He stressed that the government views these rights as affirmative obligations on the country’s development plan of action that highlights anti-corruption and good governance.

“As a developing nation, we can not do less than to attend to our peoples’ need for adequate food, shelter, education, health services, employment, water, electricity, among others,” Pilando said.

“In pursuit of this developmental state framework, human rights-based approach in development planning in the bureaucracy is being mainstreamed,” he said.

The UPR is a peer review of the human rights records of member countries of the UN.

It operates on the basis of the principle that no country is perfect and that all member states of the UN must have their human rights records examined by the Human Rights Council in the spirit of genuine dialogue and cooperation.

During the UPR review, UN member countries examine and comment on the report of the countries under review, taking into account separate independent reports by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and by NGOs.

They then submit recommendations with the aim of improving the promotion and protection of human rights in the country concerned. The country concerned may accept or reject these recommendations based on its own appreciation of the domestic situation under the principles that states are primarily responsible for human rights within their national jurisdiction.

Various countries noted the Philippine government’s dismal record in prosecuting cases of unexplained killings, torture and enforced disappearances when the country’s human rights situation was subjected to the second UPR last May at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said several countries acknowledged the efforts of the Philippine government to improve human rights, including the ratification of treaties, the campaign against human trafficking, and trainings of security forces, but several countries also called on the government to redouble its efforts to arrest alleged perpetrators such as retired Army general Jovito Palparan, who faces an arrest warrant in connection with the kidnapping of two activists in 2006.

The Aquino administration, Human Rights Watch said, should heed the recommendations of several countries at UPR session, among them to end impunity for unexplained killings and other serious abuses, and to dismantle paramilitaries and private militias, including by revoking Executive Order 546 that allows the formation of these groups.

The assistance to the Philippine military that the US Congress continues to withhold until the government meets certain conditions related to solving and prosecuting cases of unexplained killings already amounts to $13 million for the past five years.

The Philippines was among the pioneer countries that were first subjected to peer review in 2008.

The present review is the second for the Philippines. The country will again be reviewed in 2016. –Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star)