Rights advocates in dialogue to resolve violations, break down impunity

MANILA, Philippines — Human rights advocates have joined forces to step up and consolidate their efforts to stamp out rights violations, which they claimed were being violated with “impunity” in the country.

Led by Max de Mesa, chairman of the 26-year-old Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), human rights defenders and members of the diplomatic community participated in PAHRA’s 10th Congress Friday with the theme “Raising the Human Rights Bar: Consolidate and Expand the Formations of Human Rights Defenders” in their hopes of someday making human rights values “a way of life” thereby obtaining “larger freedoms – freedom from want, freedom from fear and freedom to reveal our institutions.”

“We are now engaging in dialogue to resolve human rights violations and break down impunity,” he explained, adding that although their efforts were admittedly focused on the National Capital Region, they were working to extend their reach to Mindanao.

Human Rights Commissioner Cecilia “Coco” Quisumbing agreed with De Mesa’s sentiment and informed the participants that CHR would be opening its doors to those in Mindanao by next week “to have more human rights defenders in Mindanao [and to serve as a] bridge between human rights defenders, civil society and the government.”

She asked whether, in order for human rights defenders to extend their network to more areas, it would be better to increase their members rather than forming separate human rights groups and conducting separate efforts to stop rights violations.

And with human rights defenders often becoming targets of violations, Quisumbing asked, “How can we make a culture of human rights? How do we make media organizations become human rights defenders?”

House Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tanada III, through a speech delivered by his chief-of-staff Jessica Reyes-Cantos, said that a number of bills on human rights have been passed by the House of Representatives, including House Bill 5990 or Compensation to Human Rights Victims during the Marcos Regime, HB 98 or the Anti-enforced Disappearances Bill and HB 5627 or the Anti-internal Displacement Act.

Although violations to human rights continued, Tanada said that what was different this time was that there were now efforts to put a stop to impunity. “We are now more than ready to do things about it.”