Edre Olalia, chair of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers and co-head of the Universal Periodic Review (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — Civil society groups raised anew their concern over human rights abuses in the country before the 53rd Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland, last week.
Representatives of the Center for Environmental Concerns, Coalition for People’s Rights to Health, Council for Health and Development, Ibon Foundation, Kilusang Mayo Uno, and National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) — groups which form part of the Philippines’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) as mandated by the UN — attended the conference.
They said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s first year in office was marked by a lack of accountability and progress in upholding civil and political rights.
“Beyond the optics and [rhetoric] of the Marcos Jr. administration, we come once again to the UN to hold power to account by presenting our data and recommendations which can serve as an alternative to state-backed narratives,” said lawyer Edre Olalia, NUPL chair and UPR co-head.
He said UPR’s report presented the realities of human rights abuse that the Filipino people face, in contrast to the state’s narrative before the international body.
Poverty, violations
The report served as an update after the Philippine government accepted the recommendations by the council’s other member states at the 4th cycle of UNHRC in March.
Some member states suggested the “ratification of international treaties” and the adoption of “measures to address structural challenges relating to income inequalities and poverty.”
UPR said the government failed to address “deeply-rooted problems,” such as job insecurity, poverty and inequality, the prevalence of poor health, lacking social services, environmental distress, and climate change.
The groups behind UPR also urged the council to investigate reported attacks against people who “raise dissent or dare challenge state narratives [and] face harassment, intimidation, Red-tagging, surveillance or death.”
“The lives of countless workers, lawyers, judges, health workers, environment defenders, and development workers are senselessly taken, and basic democratic rights are continuously attacked with impunity,” Olalia said.
Attempts by the state to “repress” these people only push them “to tirelessly make their voices heard” by the global community, he said.
Dialogue
UPR members also held a dialogue with the UN’s special rapporteurs on physical and mental health, protection and promotion of human rights in the context of climate change, and the independence of judges and lawyers.
The UNHRC’s conference began on June 19 and ends on July 14.