Human Rights

At the end of its investigative visit, the high-level fact-finding mission of the International Labor Organization did not accuse the Arroyo Administration of doing what militant labor and political groups have been claiming. The ILO probers did not say in the statement they issued on Thursday that they had found the government to have grossly…

Malacañang yesterday welcomed the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) move to determine if the Philippine government is abiding by international labor laws by sending a mission to the country to investigate reports of abuse and state-sponsored killings of local labor leaders and members.

An International Labor Organization (ILO) official who headed a recently concluded high-level fact-finding mission to the Philippines on alleged human rights abuses committed against workers, yesterday urged President Arroyo’s government to prove that it does not sanction extra-judicial killings, harassment and disappearances of trade union leaders who are being linked to leftist groups.

DAVAO CITY—A team of peace advocates from various parts of the world will visit war-torn areas in Mindanao, including Maguindanao, next week in a bid to press the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to respond to the plight of civilians displaced by fighting.

THE Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) is getting behind the high-level mission sent by the International Labor Organization (ILO) to Manila to investigate widespread complaints of violations of the rights of Filipino workers to freely organize themselves. We are absolutely supportive of the mission. We are hopeful that their findings and recommendations will…

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is set to investigate the new wave of summary killings here that has alarmed local officials and residents.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, says millions of people around the world are denied their human rights because of, what she calls, the “scourge of discrimination”. Pillay told the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council, that women and ethnic minorities are among those who are most victimized by human rights abuses.

MANILA, Philippines – In a landmark case, the Supreme Court has been asked to compel the government to improve living conditions in jails in the country.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) is sending high-level representatives to conduct a one-week fact-finding to the Philippines this month to look into labor rights violations and to investigate the unexplained killing of labor union leaders.

MANILA, Philippines—The high-level mission of the International Labour Organisation due to arrive on September 22 should investigate violations of the right to unionize at the export zones and industrial estates, Partido ng Manggagawa (Workers’ Party) said Wednesday.

Asks Supreme Court to improve Philippine jails MANILA, Philippines—Albert Wilson, a British national, was wrongfully sentenced to death for allegedly raping his stepdaughter in 1998, but was acquitted by the Supreme Court in 1999.

MANILA, Philippines – Two very important pieces of legislation – the Climate Change Act of 2009 and Anti-Torture Act of 2009 – have been approved in the bicameral conference committee and are just awaiting approval from President Arroyo.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Commission on Human Rights yesterday launched a program that aims to institutionalize human rights at the local government level.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – After a lull for several months, summary killings have again surged in this southern metropolis, with 15 cases recorded last month alone.

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Human Rights announced yesterday the creation of a team to investigate the disappearance of 13 members of the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political arm of the communist rebels, as an apparent confidence-building measure to convince the rebels to resume peace talks with the government.

INTERNATIONAL human rights groups on Friday called on the Philippine government to join other nations in ratifying the treaty that would end enforced disappearances in the country and in the world.

THE Court of Appeals has granted the request of Filipino-American activist Melissa Roxas for a writ of protection from any form of harassment from the police and military.

MANILA, Philippines—A Manila court Wednesday cleared an associate of retired Gen. Jovito Palparan of complicity in the country’s first-ever court case involving extrajudicial killings, saying the exclusion of the so-called “butcher of activists” from the charges weakened the case.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International yesterday blamed the Philippine military and separatist rebels for the gross human rights violations and worsening plight of thousands of civilians displaced by the armed conflict in Mindanao.

MANILA, Philippines – An international human rights organization yesterday urged the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to give special attention to the execution-style killings of children by “death squads” allegedly operating in Davao City and other parts of the Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate is expected to approve the proposed measures that would allow Congress to establish its own witness protection program and set up a reward system for whistleblowers against corrupt government officials.

MANILA, Philippines – The solution rate is higher than the unsolved cases of journalists’ murders, although some witnesses who fear for their lives are reluctant to cooperate, a special investigative task force said.

The Philippines received a strong rebuke from United Nations human rights experts for claiming that discrimination does not exist in the Philippines, particularly in the case of thousands of civilians displaced by the armed conflict in strife-torn Mindanao.

BAGUIO CITY , Philippines   – Witnesses to the gruesome murders of Filipino journalists live in fear, according to a report of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released yesterday.

The Filipinos seem to be decreasingly proud of having a large population of Christians—despite the show of affection by millions for the notably Christian late former President Cory Aquino.

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Francis Escudero yesterday said Congress is expected to ratify into law the Anti-Torture Bill after the bicameral conference committee has reconciled the two versions of the bill.

A House-Senate conference committee on Monday reconciled after just one meeting the conflicting provisions of their versions of the proposed Anti-Torture Law, the missing link in Philippine observance of human rights.

The Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) held a send-off lunch for Filipino indigenous peoples (IPs) leaders who left for Geneva, Switzerland last week to participate in the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination hearing on a complaint filed against the Philippine government by the Subanon community. ATM is an advocacy group and a…

MANILA, Philippines—The head of the United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom has condemned the latest murder of a journalist in the Philippines and called for the perpetrators of the crime to be brought to justice.

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) will investigate the “unexpected number” of summary executions in Metro Manila at the same time that it probes the so-called Davao Death Squad.