Human rights in dark times

MARTIAL law was a dark period. But when it comes to human rights, “today, these times are just as dangerous,” remarked lawyer Ricardo Sunga II.

Sunga is a consultant on human rights for the office of Quezon Representative Lorenzo Tañada III, who is the head of the House committee on human rights.

The “protection of human rights should be spared the buck-passing that government forces are wont to engage in when extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances are part of the discourse,” said Sunga, referring to a speech delivered by Tañada during a forum addressing the human rights situation at the Rembrandt Hotel yesterday.

The Philippines has been a party to the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment since the time of President Corazon Aquino, but legislators have yet to craft a law against torture.

As for the government, Sunga said that it has a flawed, “permissive” national security paradigm.

While members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have signed a charter that calls for the creation of a human rights body, this should complement human rights promotion and protection at home, said former Senator Wigberto Tañada. It is “not a substitute but an impetus for a greater and more committed human rights system in each of the ASEAN member countries.”

Yet Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates chair Max de Mesa argued that “the present administration is an obstacle to implementing its State obligations to human rights by producing a coercive environment and a culture of impunity.” De Mesa cited the present administration’s questioned legitimacy and the culture of impunity created by alleged electoral fraud, widespread corruption, militarization, and extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

View De Mesa’s slide presentation.

The President has given P25 million to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for extrajudicial killings. CHR Commissioner Dominador Calamba II said that the CHR will use this for capacity building of CHR investigators and information officers, prioritizing cases of each regional office, training judges of the special courts, and setting up an independent forensics center.

The CHR has tallied 71 extrajudicial killings from January to June of this year. Last year, it recorded 312 killings.

Calamba said the country, as a member of the United Nations, is party to the following seven core treaties:

• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Political Rights (ICESCR)
• International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
• Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
• Convention Against Torture and other Cruel Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)
• International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW)

He added that the Philippines will also soon be a party to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, when it comes to treaty reporting, the country’s status, he claimed, is “rather appalling.” The Philippines has 13 overdue reports, which Calamba hopes will be finished now that the President has beefed up the human rights committee.

View Calamba’s slide presentation.

For its part, the Philippine National Police (PNP) has put into place institutional mechanisms such as a human rights affairs office, women’s and children’s protection center and complaint desks, and Task Force Usig. Human rights affairs office chief Lina Santiago said that the PNP has processed 118 administrative cases of human rights violations committed by the police from January to July of this year.

View Santiago’s slide presentation.

The Supreme Court’s initiatives are familiar to most of the public, including the 99 special regional courts created to tackle human rights cases. However, hardly any cases have been filed. SC spokesperson Midas Marquez said that the SC has only monitored 45 cases.

The response to the newly promulgated writ of amparo has been more encouraging. Right cases have already been filed before the Supreme Court, and many more in courts around the country.The SC has also recently promulgated the writ of habeas data, which allows for access to intelligence information in order to correct erroneous or misleading entries. The writ of amparo provides more pro-active measures like the protection of witnesses and a court order for investigation into human rights violations.

The speakers at the forum came up with a number of recommendations for the government, including the following:

• conduct massive human rights education, with emphasis on training the military
• organize human rights formations on a national level
• enforce command responsibility full power of the law
• reframe its national security paradigm
• restore trust between civilians and leaders
• implement recommendations by UN special rapporteur Philip Alston
• establish human rights centers
• provide reasonable compensations for the loss of lives, property as result of combat
• protect non-combatants
• prohibit the public display of suspects
• strengthen the CHR
• sign and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
• the PNP should establish a system to match missing person to unidentified bodies