United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor urged the Philippine government to legislate the Human Rights Defenders Protection Bill as a show of its commitment to human rights treaties and standards.
In a side event at the 52nd Regular Season of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Lawlor said human rights defenders face attacks, killings, judicial harassment, arbitrary detention and stigmatization campaigns in the Philippines.
“The killings of defenders are rarely investigated which increases the vulnerability of those who remain active while undermining the human rights community’s confidence in the justice system,” she said in a statement.
Lawlor said that she wrote a letter of allegation to the Philippine government in 2021 following the March 7 “Bloody Sunday” raids across four provinces in Southern Tagalog that resulted in the killing of nine human rights defenders and indigenous peasants and the arrest of nine others.
Lawlor said the country’s Anti-Terrorism Act, passed in July 2020, “further compounded the precarious situation of human rights defenders by legally formalizing the practice of ‘red tagging’ defenders by its overly-broad definitions of terrorism.”
“I join other mandates in sharing our concerns regarding the designation of individuals, and civil society, and humanitarian organizations as ‘terrorists’ in the context of ongoing discrimination directed at religious and other minorities, human rights defenders, and political opponents,” she said.
In an earlier statement on March 21, Lawlor said she received “disturbing reports” on the recent designation of Dr. Naty Castro under the anti-terrorism law.
“Red-tagging and being designated as a terrorist are dangerous labels for human rights defenders in the Philippines,” she said, adding that “those peacefully advocating for the rights of others are being threatened.”
The UN expert urged the Philippine government to comply with human rights treaties and standards she said are complementary and mutually reinforcing goals for effective counter terrorism measures.
“I have been following very closely the developments on the Human Rights Defenders Protection Bill, which is a great possibility,” she said.
“The act proposes, among others, the recognition of human rights defenders, human rights organizations and their work, the obligations of state actors towards them, and the creation of a Human Rights Defenders Protection Committee in line with the Human Rights Defenders Declaration,” said Lawlor.
“As we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, I couldn’t think of a better way that the Philippine government could show its value, its worth, than adopting and implementing this act. It definitely would show commitment to the work of human rights defenders,” Lawlor said.
