Philippines: UN report details widespread human
rights violations and persistent impunity
BANGKOK/GENEVA (4 June 2020) – A heavy-handed focus on countering
national security threats and illegal drugs has resulted in serious human
rights violations in the Philippines, including killings and arbitrary detentions,
as well as the vilification of dissent, a new report by the UN Human Rights
Office said Thursday. Persistent impunity and formidable barriers to
accessing justice need to be urgently addressed, the report said.
The report, which was mandated by a UN Human Rights Council resolution,
noted that many of the human rights concerns it has documented are long-
standing, but have become more acute in recent years. This has been
manifested particularly starkly in the widespread and systematic killing of
thousands of alleged drug suspects. Numerous human rights defenders have
also been killed over the past five years.
“While there have been important human rights gains in recent years,
particularly in economic and social rights, the underpinning focus on national
security threats – real and inflated – has led to serious human rights
violations, reinforced by harmful rhetoric from high-level officials,” the report
stated. “This focus has permeated the implementation of existing laws and
policies and the adoption of new measures – often at the expense of human
rights, due process rights, the rule of law, and accountability.”
Since the Government launched its campaign against illegal drugs in 2016,
official figures indicate that at least 8,663 people have been killed, with some
estimates putting the real toll at more than triple that number. The UN
Human Rights Office has also documented that, between 2015 and 2019, at
least 248 human rights defenders, legal professionals, journalists and trade
unionists have been killed in relation to their work.
There has been near impunity for these killings, with only one conviction for
the killing of a drug suspect in a police operation since mid-2016, the report
stated. Witnesses, family members, journalists and lawyers interviewed by
the UN Human Rights Office expressed fears over their safety and a sense of
powerlessness in the search for justice, resulting in a situation where “the
practical obstacles to accessing justice within the country are almost
insurmountable.”
Given the failure of domestic mechanisms to ensure accountability thus far,
the report stressed the need for independent, impartial, credible
investigations into all allegations of serious violations of human rights and
international humanitarian law. The High Commissioner stands ready to
assist credible efforts towards accountability at the national and international
level.
The UN Human Rights Office examined the key policy documents relating to
the campaign against illegal drugs and found a troubling lack of due process
protections, and the use of language calling for “negation” and
“neutralization” of drug suspects.
“Such ill-defined and ominous language, coupled with repeated verbal
encouragement by the highest level of State officials to use lethal force, may
have emboldened police to treat the circular as permission to kill,” the report
stated.
Police raids on private households were routinely carried out without
warrants, and post-operational spot reports examined by the Office indicated
that evidence may have been falsified. An examination of 25 operations in
which 45 people were killed in Metro Manila between August 2016 and June
2017 found that “police repeatedly recovered guns bearing the same serial
numbers from different victims in different locations,” suggesting some
victims were unarmed at the time of their killing. Arrests of suspected drug
offenders have also contributed to a 534 per cent prison congestion rate –
among the highest in the world.
While the Philippines has a long-standing and robust tradition of human rights
advocacy and activism, with more than 60,000 registered NGOs, human
rights defenders have been subject to verbal and physical attacks, threats
and legal harassment for nearly 20 years, the report states. The vilification of
dissent and attacks against perceived critics, the report said, are being
“increasingly institutionalized and normalized in ways that will be very
difficult to reverse.”
The phenomenon of “red-tagging” – labelling individuals or groups (including
human rights defenders and NGOs) as communists or terrorists – has posed a
serious threat to civil society and freedom of expression. The report notes
how in some cases those who have been red-tagged were subsequently
killed. Others told the UN Human Rights Office they had received death
threats or sexually-charged comments in private messages or on social
media.
“Human rights advocacy is routinely equated with insurgency and the focus
diverted to discrediting the messengers rather than examining the substance
of the message,” the report said. “This has muddied the space for debate,
disagreement and for challenging State institutions and policies.”
Human rights violations documented in the Philippines have been
exacerbated by harmful rhetoric emanating from the highest levels of the
Government, which the report described as “pervasive and deeply
damaging.” That rhetoric has ranged from degrading comments against
women human rights defenders to incitement to extreme violence against
civil society actors, journalists, people who use and sell drugs, and
indigenous peoples. The use of some of this “incendiary” language “could
amount to a violation of the prohibition against arbitrary deprivation of life in
Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” the
report said.
In the report, the UN Human Rights Office also detailed ongoing threats to
freedom of expression, with legal charges and prosecutions being brought
against journalists and senior politicians critical of the Government, as well as
actions to shut down media outlets.
The report also examined key national security laws and policies and their
impact on human rights, particularly in the southern island of Mindanao, as
well as Negros Island, which have seen increased militarization through the
imposition of emergency measures. The effect of this militarization – coupled
with the long-standing presence of armed groups and the pressure by
powerful landed elites and large business projects – is particularly dire on
already embattled indigenous and farming communities.
There are concerns that counter-insurgency policies have given rise to
patterns resembling “those that characterize the anti-illegal drugs campaign,
notably a presumption of guilt and lack of due process or effective oversight –
this time against those suspected of supporting the [Communist Party of the
Philippines and its New People’s Army],” the report stated.
The report also documents reports of human rights abuses by non-State
actors, including killings, abductions, recruitment of children and extortion by
the New People’s Army (NPA). The United Nations lists the NPA among parties
that commit grave violations affecting children in situations of armed conflict.
The High Commissioner welcomed the substantive engagement between the
UN Human Rights Office and the Government of the Philippines in the
preparation of the report.
“The Philippines faces major challenges – structural poverty, inequality,
armed conflict, frequent natural disasters, and now the COVID-19 crisis,”
Bachelet said. “It is vital the Government’s responses be grounded in human-
rights approaches and guided by meaningful dialogue. Accountability and full
transparency for alleged violations are essential for building public trust.
Unfortunately, the report has documented deep-seated impunity for serious
human rights violations, and victims have been deprived of justice for the
killings of their loved ones. Their testimonies are heartbreaking.”
“People who use or sell drugs do not lose their human rights,” the High
Commissioner said. “People who disagree with Government policies and
criticize them, including in international fora, should not be vilified as terrorist
sympathizers. Indigenous peoples should not be victims of a tug-of-war
between the State, non-State armed groups and business interests.”
She said the UN Human Rights Office was ready to support the Philippines –
constructively and concretely – in implementing the report’s
recommendations, in an effort to halt the many long-standing, widespread
human rights violations in the country, and to prevent their recurrence.
The report is based on 893 written submissions, substantial input from the
Government of the Philippines, analysis of legislation, police reports, court
documents, videos, photos and other open source material, as well as
interviews with victims and witnesses. It is due to be discussed at the next
UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva.
ENDS
HRC 44 Side Event: Human Rights Situation in the
Philippines – Civil Society Reactions to the UN High
Commissioner’s Report
1 July 2020 6:28 pm
A webinar on ‘Human Rights Situation in the Philippines: Civil Society Reactions
to the UN High Commissioner’s Report’
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report on the
Philippines revealed widespread human rights violations and persistent impunity in
consonance with reports by most civil society organisations on what is happening in the
country.
The report was released at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic militarist response of
the government is further aggravating the human rights situation in the country. The
response has included the use of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and the
repression of freedom of expression, through the emergency decree and other
repressive laws.
This webinar will provide a platform for Philippine civil society representatives to share
reactions to the High Commissioner’s report, looking at the human rights violations
including within the context of the ‘war on the drugs,’ and the crucial role of the
international community and the Human Rights Council in supporting accountability in
the country.
Date: 6 July 2020 (Monday)
Time: 10.00 AM – 12.00 PM (Geneva time, GMT+2)
Click to register. The webinar will also be live streamed on FORUM-ASIA’s Facebook
page.
Speakers:
Atty Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno, Chairman, Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG)
Christian B. Buenafe, [Link], Co-chairperson, Task Force Detainees of the
Philippines (TFDP)
Judy Pasimio, Coordinator, LILAK (Purple Action for Indigenous Women’s Rights)
Rose Trajano, Secretary General, Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates
(PAHRA)
Representative from the Commission on Human Rights (TBC)
The webinar will be moderated by Joy Icayan, East Asia and ASEAN Programme
Officer, FORUM-ASIA
Support the implementation
of OHCHR recommendations
on Philippine rights situation:
Justice for victims of state-
sponsored violence
pctt2
June 25, 2020
Democracy / Views
0 Comments
Photo by Carlo Manalansan / [Link]
IBON International welcomes the OHCHR
report as a move towards holding state
perpetrators and other complicit actors
accountable on their rights violations and
crimes against the Filipino people under the
current regime to obtain justice and
reparations for all victims and families. The
report is an outcome of the campaign efforts
of peoples’ organisations and civil society
for the conduct of a UN probe in the country.
We urge all delegates in the UN Human
Rights Council to endorse the
recommendations.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN
OHCHR) released its report on the human rights situation in the
Philippines early in the month of June,[i] in fulfilment of the Iceland-led UN
Human Rights Council Resolution last year.[ii]
IBON International welcomes the OHCHR report as a move towards
holding state perpetrators and other complicit actors accountable on their
rights violations and crimes against the Filipino people under the current
regime to obtain justice and reparations for all victims and families. The
report is an outcome of the campaign efforts of peoples’ organisations
and civil society for the conduct of a UN probe in the country.
The Iceland resolution requested the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Michelle Bachelet to conduct an investigation and prepare a written report
on the human rights situation in the country as international concern
mounts over the brutal, false “drug war” that have killed tens of
thousands of people, and the erosion of democratic and economic rights
under the Duterte administration.
The release of the report coincides with the passage of the Anti-Terror Bill
which has become controversial even in the international community for
its vague definition of ‘terrorism’ that targets all who express criticism
against the government including concerned citizens, human rights
defenders and progressive organisations.
The OHCHR report forebodes against the
passage of the Anti-Terror Bill, as it has cited
similar so-called “national security” laws
and policies as bases for abuse by state
forces. This reinforces the peoples’
opposition of the Anti-Terror Bill which has
been railroaded in congress, while the
government’s COVID-19 responses fail to
address people’s immediate health and
economic needs.
The OHCHR report forebodes against the passage of the Anti-Terror Bill,
as it has cited similar so-called “national security” laws and policies such
as the Human Security Act of 2007, the Cyber Crime Protection Act,
Executive Order 70 (EO 70) and Memorandum Order 32 (MO 32) as bases
for abuse by state forces against citizens resulting in arbitrary and unjust
arrests and killings with impunity. This reinforces the peoples’ opposition
of the Anti-Terror Bill which has been railroaded in congress, while the
government’s COVID-19 responses fail to address people’s immediate
health and economic needs.
IBON International urges all delegates in the UN Human Rights Council
(UNHRC) this 30 June in Geneva, Switzerland to endorse the
recommendations. The OHCHR and the Human Rights Council should
oversee the implementation of the recommendations to end state-
sponsored killings and to protect the full range of people’s rights. They
should also continue monitoring the human rights situation in the country
by assigning a special rapporteur.
It is important that the OHCHR and UNHRC work together, not only with
government actors, but with peoples’ organisations and civil society who
have been engaged in earnest efforts in upholding peoples’ rights, to
ensure the effective implementation of the recommendations. This is
especially needed as there have been instances where governments
obstructed efforts to conduct UN inquiries, and rejected their findings,
such as in Eritrea,[iii] by Saudi Arabia and their allies in the war in Yemen,
[iv] and by Israel in their occupation of Palestine.[v] Such is also the case
in the Philippine as the government did not allow the commissioner to visit
the country to conduct a thorough investigation, and the president’s
spokesperson even denied the findings of the OHCHR report.[vi] In Sri
Lanka, the government has even taken advantage of the pandemic to
pardon war criminals, and has withdrawn from commitments in the
UNHRC to provide accountability and reparations to victims of the Sri
Lankan civil war.[vii]
Findings: state-sponsored killings, attacks against marginal sectors,
human rights defenders and civil society, children not spared
The findings reveal thousands of killings
with impunity and arbitrary detention among
a host of rights violations committed under a
“drug war” that targets the poor, and in line
with “national security” campaigns that
target people and community leaders who
assert their economic rights and sovereignty
against the private interests of transnational
and multinational corporations and the local
elite.
The report’s findings reveal thousands of killings with impunity and
arbitrary detention among a host of rights violations committed under a
“drug war” that targets the poor, and in line with “national security”
campaigns that target people and community leaders who assert their
economic rights and sovereignty against the private interests of
transnational and multinational corporations and the local elite. The global
trend of shrinking space for democratic participation is also evident in the
criminalisation of peoples’ organisations and civil society in the country.
The report says that most human rights concerns in the country have
been “long-standing” but that they “have become more acute over the
recent years.”
IBON International condemns the state’s rights violations, which have
drastically escalated in the past five years, and the utter disregard for life
especially of the poor and marginalised sectors. We share people’s grief
and anger against an economic system and an elite-led state that
deprives them of dignified living, and sanctions and cultivates a culture of
impunity.
Based on government data, 8,663 people have been killed by the police
and unidentified “vigilantes” —who are possibly backed by the police
themselves and local government officials—in drug war operations, but
the report estimates that actual figures could be tripled. Drug-related
killings were usually justified by police’s claims that the victims were
armed and resisted arrest, but OHCHR investigation found that the
evidence against victims may have been falsified. The police repeatedly
recovered guns with the same serial numbers as “evidence” in different
cases. Children are not spared in police operations, with over 73 children
victims of drug-related killings, including a five-month old infant.
Police and ‘vigilantes’ kill with impunity and are even encouraged by the
rhetoric of high-ranking government officials including President Duterte.
Only the killing of 17-year-old Kian Delos Santos has resulted in the
conviction of police officers as footage which captured the torture and
murder of the teenager provided strong evidence against the police, and
also caused widespread outrage and heightened indignation against the
“drug war” killings. The report says that the harmful rhetoric used by
government officials could be considered as violation of the “prohibition
against arbitrary deprivation of life in Article 6 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
State and paramilitary forces have also killed hundreds of human rights
and environmental defenders, including legal professionals, journalists
and trade unionists in “anti-insurgency” efforts under EO 70. Hundreds of
HRDs have also been unjustly detained and have remained in prison amid
appeals to release them on humanitarian grounds during the pandemic.
Meanwhile civil society and non-government organisations, which are
registered as legal and legitimate entities and have been supporting
community-led development initiatives, are maliciously “red-tagged” or
accused as communist sympathisers and are senselessly equated to being
a ‘threat’ to national security. The police and military have disrupted their
operations by raiding their offices.
Peasant and Indigenous Peoples’ communities have become primary
targets of so-called anti-insurgency efforts. In Negros, Samar, and Bicol
Region, MO 32 was implemented to deploy more police and military forces
to fight “terrorism,” but its implementation has only resulted in killings
and arbitrary detention of peasant community leaders and members of
progressive organisations. International humanitarian law may have also
been violated by the state forces such as in the conduct of aerial bombing
operations in the said areas.
Peasant and indigenous leaders who have opposed corporate plunder,
such as the OceanaGold operations in the province of Nueva Vizcaya, or
else corporate-led development projects, such as the Kaliwa Dam project
in the province of Quezon, were also harassed, if not killed by the military
and paramilitary forces. An “emblematic case” was that of an indigenous
Lumad leader in Mindanao who was killed by the military for refusing to
renew authorisation for a coffee plantation.
Indigenous Lumad children and youth are systematically deprived of their
right to education as over 54 of their schools were closed by the
government in 2019. These schools were initiated and independently
established by indigenous Lumad groups after years of government
neglect of their needs for social services.
More rights violations during the pandemic
While the pandemic and the corresponding
militarised response restricted people’s
movement and limited their capacity to
organise mass political actions, state forces
that were deployed in major cities and rural
communities had free rein to arbitrarily
arrest people over “lockdown violations.”
They have also violently dispersed small
groups of people who were demanding food
and assistance and even community-based
relief operations and other initiatives.
The report shows that the government has only ramped up rights
violations during the pandemic. Last April, OHCHR also identified the
Philippines as among states that have implemented highly militarised
responses that are counterproductive to addressing peoples’ needs during
the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession. The “community
quarantine,” with restrictions partially lifted in June, was proved to be
impotent in containing the spread of the disease, and only served to
consolidate the president’s autocratic and militarist regime.
While the pandemic and the corresponding militarised response restricted
people’s movement and limited their capacity to organise mass political
actions, state forces that were deployed in major cities and rural
communities had free rein to arbitrarily arrest people over “lockdown
violations.” They have also violently dispersed small groups of people who
were demanding food and assistance and even community-based relief
operations and other initiatives.
The administration also ordered the shutdown of a major media company
amid people’s need for credible and accessible information on the
development of health guidelines regarding COVID-19. The move,
reminiscent of former deposed dictator Marcos, is an assault against press
freedom, and threatens independent reporting and free speech.
The Anti-Terror Bill, which was passed in congress by circumventing
processes such as amendments and hearings, aims to stifle all forms of
dissent. The bill provides for the penalising of accused “terrorists” with life
imprisonment without parole, and authorises warrantless arrests and
extended detention. Anti-terrorism laws in other countries have only
facilitated state attacks against human and environmental rights
defenders, and tend to be discriminatory against migrants, refugees and
minority ethnic groups.
Hold states accountable, fulfil peoples’ just demands
States should fulfil their obligations to
peoples under domestic and international
human rights law, to protect their economic
and democratic rights, and to hold
perpetrators of rights violations
accountable, including corporations, state
forces, and government officials.
IBON International demands that the state fulfils its obligations to the
people under domestic and international human rights law, to protect
their economic and democratic rights, and to hold perpetrators of rights
violations accountable, including corporations, state forces, and
government officials. We fully support the report’s recommendations
including immediate actions by the international community, and the
application of international accountability measures especially if the
Philippine government refuses to exact accountability from perpetrators
and deliver justice to the victims. We anticipate the adoption of the
recommendations in the upcoming UNHRC session
Other important recommendations of the report that align with people’s
long-standing demands are: to put an end to the drug war and to deliver
financial, legal, and psycho-social support to all families of victims of drug-
related killings; to recognise the “drug problem” as a health and economic
issue and consider human-rights based responses for drug offences; to
rescind so-called “national security” laws and policies that have been
used as basis for gross rights violations, and to disband paramilitary
forces; to protect the rights of marginal sectors, and to facilitate the
participation of peoples’ organisations and civil society in important
governmental processes including responding to human rights concerns;
and to uphold the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in
relation to development projects and business practices.
All efforts and resources today should be
channeled to health and rights-based
pandemic responses to help working peoples
and marginalised sectors and communities.
We also reiterate that governments should focus all efforts and resources
today to health and rights-based pandemic responses to help working
peoples and marginalised sectors and communities. They should adhere
to international calls to release elderly, political, and low-risk prisoners,
and to end all forms of military aggression and comply with global
ceasefire.
Ultimately, we recognise the campaign efforts of peoples’ organisations
and civil society to pursue the OHCHR probe even with the Philippine
government’s objections. The report would not have been completed if
people’s organisations and CSOs have not conscientiously monitored and
recorded the human rights situation in the country.
All over the world, peoples continue to organise massive actions while
following health precautions to express their collective grievances and just
demands. In the Philippines, several mass actions were held to oppose the
Anti-Terror Bill, and against the state’s vicious attacks amid the pandemic,
and its failure to respond to people’s immediate needs. Peoples’ anger
against dysfunctional neoliberal states was not extinguished by fear of the
pandemic. COVID-19 has exposed the hideousness of a system that
exploits working peoples for the enrichment of a few, and thus further
fuelled peoples’ rage.###
[i] [Link]
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[iv] OHCHR and other UN inquiries
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