Philippine human rights group submitted this week an alternative report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee for the UN body’s review of the government’s compliance to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In their report, rights group Karapatan and women’s group Tanggol Bayi said “the human rights situation in the country has spiraled into a crisis.”
The groups said they based their claim on documentations of alleged “gross violations on the right to life and civil liberties,” especially what they described as the “deeper and pervasive climate of impunity and the dire lack of effective domestic mechanisms for redress and accountability” in country.
The Philippines will undergo a fifth review before the UN treaty body in October, with non-governmental organizations providing alternative submissions to the government report.
Karapatan and Tanggol Bayi’s 29-page joint alternative report covers human rights issues during the administrations of the late president Benigno Aquino III and former president Rodrigo Duterte and the first months of the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The report highlighted “serious human rights violations” committed by State actors, including extrajudicial killings in the drug war and counterinsurgency programs of the Philippine government.
It also included the numerous cases of illegal and arbitrary arrests and detention, threats including red- and terrorist-tagging, and judicial harassment.
Other alleged violations listed in the report are:
infringement on press freedom and freedom of expression, as well as freedom of association and academic freedom;
forced evacuations and bombings of communities due to military operations;
cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners including political prisoners;
gendered attacks against women and LGBTQ human rights defenders, among others.
“There is an even more urgent need for the international community and the UN human rights mechanisms to undertake decisive steps for an independent investigation on these concerns and to continue to monitor and report on the human rights situation in the Philippines,” said Palabay in a statement.
“We urge the members of the UN Human Rights Committee to comprehensively evaluate how the ICCPR has been grossly violated by the Philippine government through the many years after the last review,” she added.
