Karapatan: Move meant to evade accountability
PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. has formed a special committee to promote and protect human rights in the country, especially in the implementation of the government’s illegal drugs campaign and counter-terrorism efforts.
The President issued Administrative Order No. 22 amid reports that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is supposedly set to issue arrest warrants against government officials led by ex-President Rodrigo Duterte who are facing complaints of human rights violations in relation to the former administration’s war against illegal drugs.
The Duterte government has been accused of disregarding human rights in its conduct of the bloody campaign, which left thousands dead.
The Marcos administration has kept a non-cooperative stance on the ICC probe, insisting that the country has a working juridical system to investigate the alleged human rights violations.
It has likewise maintained that it has put in place mechanisms to protect the Filipinos’ human rights.
Marcos’ “super body” will be under the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC), which he has tasked to formulate a National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP) and ensure the country’s compliance with its obligations under various international human rights instruments.
AO 22, which was signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on May 8, named the Executive Secretary and the secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ) as co-chairpersons, with the secretaries of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) as members.
The body will also include, as members or observers, representatives from the Commission on Human Rights, Dangerous Drugs Board, and Anti-Terrorism Council-Program Management Center.
The PHRC shall act as the secretariat and provide the necessary technical, administrative and operational support to the special committee.
Aside from creating the NHRAP, the special committee is likewise enjoined to come up with strategies to strengthen existing mechanisms for the protection and promotion of human rights, particularly in the areas of investigation and accountability; improve data-gathering on alleged human rights violations by law enforcement agencies; expand civic space and engagement with private sector; come up with national mechanisms for implementation, reporting, and follow-up; and establish a human rights-based approach towards drug control and counter-terrorism.
The President also directed the body to facilitate access to redress mechanism of victims of human rights violations; monitor and ensure effective implementation of government policies and programs aimed at upholding and protecting human rights of persons deprived of liberty, particularly in guaranteeing that no one is subjected to torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment; and submit an annual report, through the PHRC, relative to the implementation of the administrative order.
The President stressed it is necessary to sustain and enhance the country’s accomplishments under the United Nations for the Joint Programme on Human Rights (UNJP), which is set to expire on 31 July 2024, through the institutionalization of a robust multi-stakeholder process for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines.
The Philippines and the United Nations signed the three-year UNJP on July 2021.
The Joint Programme affirmed the commitment of the Philippines to the “primacy of human rights, the importance of a free democratic space for civil society, and the principle of international cooperation–key values that the Philippines holds dear as a founding charter member of the UN.”
Under the joint program, the UN and the Philippines will engage in capacity-building and technical cooperation in six areas, namely, strengthening domestic investigation and accountability mechanisms; data gathering on alleged police violations, civic space and engagement with civil society and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), national mechanism for reporting and follow-up, counter-terrorism legislation, and human rights-based approaches to drug control.
‘COORDINATION BODY’
In a statement, the human rights group Karapatan questioned the creation of the human rights super body, saying it is “a desperate attempt to window-dress the grave human rights situation in the country.”
It added the move was “a tactic to evade accountability for the human rights violations committed during the previous and the current regimes.”
The group described the special committee as a mere “coordination body,” out of which it said the public cannot expect much.
“It will go the way of the inter-agency committee created under Administrative Order No. 35 tasked to resolve extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and other grave violations of human rights, which has a pitiful record of having handled only 385 cases and securing 13 convictions out of thousands of cases, as well as the more recently created task force under Executive Order No. 23 which is supposed to probe labor-related violations but has not been heard of again since its establishment a year ago,” Karapatan said.
Karapatan also noted that the Marcos administration’s counter-insurgency program and its “draconian policies and laws” have resulted to extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrests and detention, bombings and forcible evacuations, and fake surrenders “while the systemic roots of the continuous violations of people’s rights that drive the State security forces’ commission of these grave crimes with impunity remain in place.”
“Thus, these bodies are mere embellishments meant to appease the growing indignation here and abroad against the escalating violations of civil and political rights in the Philippines and gloss over the reality of state responsibility for the extrajudicial killings and other gross human rights and international humanitarian law violations,” it added. — With Victor Reyes
