Human Rights

MANILA, Philippines – The government has received much-needed help in its fight against human rights violations.

MANILA, Philippines – The European Union has funded with P540 million (10 million euros) a program to reckon with the sticky issues of human rights violations, including extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances, in the country.

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MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – The Aquino administration assured the public that it has taken significant steps to deter extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, a Palace official said today.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government continued to investigate and prosecute only a limited number of reported human rights abuses, and concerns about impunity persisted, according to the latest annual US Department of State human rights country report.

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MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippine Congress has approved a bill awarding compensation to thousands of victims of human rights abuses under late President Ferdinand Marcos’s 20-year iron rule.

The President of the Philippines Benigno Aquino has signed a new human rights law on the abduction of individuals by state officials. It is the first major human rights legislation passed by Mr Aquino, who came to power three years ago promising to address such crimes.

MANILA, Philippines – A guidebook for public prosecutors handling cases of human rights violations has been launched. It is a project of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the University of the Philippines Law Center’s Institute for the Administration of Justice (UP-IAJ).

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino ordered yesterday the creation of special teams that would investigate human rights abuses committed by state and non-state forces, in order to ensure a focused probe and speedy resolution of all unsolved and new cases, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said yesterday.

President Benigno Aquino III has ordered the creation of special teams to exclusively handle cases of extra-legal killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and other forms of human rights violations by state and non-state forces.

MANILA, Philippines – At least a hundred cases related to impunity against the exercise of freedom of expression have been recorded in Southeast Asia for 2012, according to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), a regional network of independent, national media organizations.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has proposed the creation of a high-level inter-agency body to monitor investigations involving cases of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture. On Thursday, De Lima said she came up with the idea of creating a “superbody” against human rights violations following her recent visits to Washington and Geneva in Switzerland.

The government of Indonesia is hosting the fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) in Yogyakarta, which comes on the heels of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on Oct. 13. Both events show global concern about disasters.

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The European Union (EU) is offering a total of P95-million grant for project proposals in the field of human rights. According to the European Union Delegation to the Philippines, civil society organizations (CSOs), both from the Philippines and EU, may now avail themselves of grants worth €200,000 to € 500,000–P10 million to P 26 million…

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.

GAINS IN protecting human rights in the Philippines were noted by the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Foreign Affairs department said in a statement at the weekend.

(Updated 1:30 p.m.) Members of the US House of Representatives were “satisfied” with the efforts being undertaken by the Aquino administration in addressing human rights situation in the country, the Philippines’ top diplomat to Washington said Monday.

MANILA, Philippines — On paper, the Philippines possesses many laws and hews to several lofty international conventions to protect human rights and bring swift justice to violators.

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MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has reported a decrease in the total number of extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture in 2011 with 132 incidents and 215 victims, compared to the 183 incidents and 408 victims recorded in 2010.

Government security forces still commit human rights violations as the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) continues to record cases of extra-judicial killings, torture, enforced disappearance and harassment against military and police.

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The Authorities should consider the slain Dutch development worker Wilhelmus JJ Lutz Geertman to be a victim of extrajudicial killing due to his involvement in campaigns against landlessness, mining, logging and a large freeport project in Aurora province, his brother said on Saturday.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) yesterday blamed the Aquino administration for the killing of Dutch environmentalist Willem Geertman in Pampanga on Tuesday, as it condemned the government for the unabated extrajudicial killings of activists in the country.

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—Unlike their national counterparts, who can’t seem to live without it, lawmakers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao have eschewed pork barrel in passing the region’s Public Works Act, also known as Muslim Mindanao Act 229.

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines – A 67-year-old Dutch missionary who was reportedly assisting farm workers in Hacienda Luisita was executed in front of his office in Barangay Telebastagan here at past noon yesterday.