Bayan welcomes recommendations of UN Human Rights Committee

Bayan welcomes recommendations of UN Human Rights Committee

The Review
By DEE AYROSO/Bulatlat.com

November 6, 2022

Bayan welcomes the recommendations of the United Nations’ Human Rights Committee tasked with reviewing the compliance of the Philippine government with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The report of the HRC highlights the failure of the past and present Philippine governments in ensuring that human rights are upheld at all times. The recommendations take note of such issues as red-tagging of human rights defenders, the dangerous provisions of the Anti-Terror Law, the compensation of human rights victims including those from the Marcos dictatorship, and the continued detention of senator Leila de Lima.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee is a treaty body composed of 18 experts, established through the ICCPR. The Committee meets for three four-week sessions per year to consider the periodic reports submitted by the 173 States parties to the ICCPR on their compliance with the treaty. Last month, Department of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla led the Philippine government delegation in the session conducted in Geneva, Switzerland.

Among the important recommendations by the HRC are the following:

1. Investigate and prosecute in a timely manner all reported cases of past human rights violations and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice that penalties imposed are commensurate with the severity of the offense. The HRC further recommended that all victims of the past human rights violations should have adequate access to compensation schemes, including under the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act which seeks to indemnify victims of the Marcos dictatorship.

2. Review and amend the Anti-Terrorism Act, particularly its articles 25 and 29, with a view to bringing it into full compliance with the Covenant and the principles of legal certainty, predictability and proportionality. The HRC also called on the Philippine government to refrain from using counter-terrorism legislation to limit and repress the freedom of expression, assembly and association of government critics, human rights defenders and journalists.

3. Put an end to extrajudicial killings of suspected drug offenders and users. In doing so, take steps to replace an exclusively punitive approach to drug control with an approach fully in line with the Covenant, ensure that high-level officials refrain from inciting violence and extrajudicial killings, abolish the use of “drug watch lists and strengthen cooperation with international human rights bodies including the ongoing investigation by the ICC.

4. Establish an independent institution, such as a national
preventive mechanism in line with the Optional Protocol to the Committee against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to monitor cases of torture.

5. Decrease the use of pretrial detention by ensuring a wider use of non- custodial preventive measures as provided for in the new Code of Criminal Procedure and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (the Tokyo Rules) and ensure that no one is held in pretrial detention for longer than prescribed by law.

6. Step up its efforts to protect judges, prosecutors and lawyers against public threats, intimidation, harassment and violence, including killings and ensure that all violations are promptly, thoroughly, independently and impartially investigated, that the perpetrators are brought to justice

7. Expedite the operationalization of the Marawi Compensation Board established under the Marawi Siege Compensation Act of 2022, with a view to providing victims with effective remedies, including adequate compensation and for government to refrain from indiscriminate military operations, with a view to preventing internal displacement and other human rights violations

8. Refrain from prosecuting and imprisoning journalists, media workers and other civil society actors as a means of deterring or discouraging them from freely expressing their opinions and prevent acts of harassment, intimidation and attacks against journalists, media workers, human rights defenders and other civil society actors to ensure that they are free to carry out their work without fear of violence or reprisals.

9. Take immediate steps to ensure the protection of human rights defenders, activists and other civil society actors to enable them to exercise and promote human rights in a safe environment and to end “red-tagging” of human rights defenders, activists and other civil society actors

10. Refrain from repression, harassment, intimidation and attacks against trade unionists. Ensure that allegations of excessive use of force during peaceful assemblies, including strikes by workers, are investigated promptly, thoroughly and impartially.

11. The State party should refrain from using criminal laws as a tool to harass, intimidate and exclude members of the opposition. It should take necessary steps to end the prolonged pretrial detention of former Senator Leila de Lima, including through granting her bail.

12. Ensure that harassment, intimidation and violence against and killings of indigenous peoples and indigenous rights defenders are promptly, thoroughly, independently and impartially investigated.

13. Ensure that all acts of discrimination and violence against persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, members of minority groups and indigenous peoples are promptly and effectively investigated

The recommendations stem from a recognition of the dire human rights situation in the Philippines. The experts do not appear swayed by the claim that the justice system in the country is working for the victims of human rights violations. They are not convinced that the human rights situation has greatly improved.

The Human Rights Committee recommendations are timely given the continuing cases of human rights violations such as the militarization of communities, arrests of activists on trumped-up charges, red-tagging and terrorist-labeling, killings of activists and journalists, and the many cases of political prisoners nationwide. The Philippine government must not ignore nor downplay these recommendations and instead find concrete ways of upholding its treaty obligations under the ICCPR.

We call on the the Philippine government to issue a standing invitation to all UN special rapporteurs and experts to visit the Philippines so that they may examine the situation on the ground and make further recommendations. We call for an end to impunity and for justice for all human rights victims.

(PRESS RELEASE)