Do we really know our human rights?

Posted by Belarmino Dabalos Saguing                                                                     Rome, Italy 08/01/2015

(Source: http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/114698-human-rights-philippines)

Every year on 10th December, Human Rights Day is observed throughout the world. It was on this day in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This has become a universal standard for defending and promoting human rights.

Every year on 10th December, Human Rights Day marks the adoption of the Universal Declaration OF Human Rights with the central principle that "All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms". Since its adoption in 1948, the Declaration has been and continues to be a source of inspiration for national and international efforts to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.

However, in spite of the efforts of the United Nations and various international Human Rights watch forums and organizations, violation of Human Rights still goes on in different parts of the world.

1. What are human rights?

Human rights, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, refers to norms that aim to protect people from political, legal, and social abuses.

The United Nations (UN) defines human rights as universal and inalienable, interdependent and indivisible, and equal and non-discriminatory.

• Universal and inalienable:
  Human rights belong to all and cannot be taken away unless specific situations call for it. However, the deprivation of a person's right is subject to due process.
• Interdependent and indivisible:
  Whatever happens to even one right – fulfillment or violation – can directly affect the others.
• Equal and non-discriminatory:
  Human rights protect all people regardless of race, nationality, gender, religion, and political leaning, among others. They should be respected without prejudice.

Human rights can also be classified under individual, collective, civil, political, economic and social, and cultural.

2. What laws or legal documents ensure the human rights of Filipino citizens?

The rights of Filipinos can be found in Article III of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Also called the Bill of Rights, it includes 22 sections which declare a Filipino citizen’s rights and privileges that the Constitution has to protect, no matter what.

Aside from various local laws, human rights in the Philippines are also guided by the UN's International Bill of Human Rights – a consolidation of 3 legal documents including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights(ICESCR).

As one of the signatories of these legal documents, the Philippines is obliged to recognize and apply appropriate laws to ensure each right’s fulfillment.

This is not always the case, however, as the Philippine Constitution lacks explicit laws to further cement specific human rights in the local context.

For example, the Right to Adequate Food may be included in the UNDR but it is not explicitly indicated in the Philippine Constitution. Thus the government cannot be held responsible if this is not attained. (READ: Zero Hunger: Holding gov’t accountable)

3. Who oversees the fulfillment and protection of human rights in the Philippines?

Human rights are both rights and obligations, according to the UN. The state – or the government – is obliged to “respect, protect, and fulfill” these rights.

Respect begets commitment from state that no law should be made to interfere or curtail the fulfillment of the stated human rights. Protecting means that human rights violations should be prevented and if they exist, immediate action should be made.

(source: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/philippines)

With less than a year left in office, the administration of President Benigno Aquino III continues to send mixed signals about its commitment to improve human rights in the Philippines. Although the number of cases of extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances by state security forces has declined in the last four years, such abuses regularly occur.  They are fueled by the government’s  lack of political will to end the longstanding impunity enjoyed by the police and armed forces, a dysfunctional criminal justice system, and military resistance to accountability.

While human rights was a key agenda for Aquino when he took office in 2010, he has failed to make good on many of his commitments, chiefly his expressed intent to end killings of activists and journalists and bring those responsible to justice.  Aquino risked losing political capital by suggesting a term extension for the president, and he found himself at odds with the Supreme Court by calling it an impediment to his proposed reforms.

The arrest of retired army general, Jovito Palparan, in August 2014 by a combined unit of the civilian National Bureau of Investigation and naval intelligence could prove to be a watershed moment in overcoming the military’s historic unwillingness to prosecute personnel for serious human rights abuses.  Palparan is implicated in extrajudicial killings, torture,  and enforced disappearances by forces under his command in  several regions between 2001 and 2005. He has been charged with the kidnapping and torture in 2006 of two women, Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno. Palparan has said that his actions during this period were to implement the counterinsurgency program of then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.  Under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration from 2001 to 2010, hundreds of leftist activists were tortured, “disappeared,” and killed.

Palparan was put in the custody of the provincial police in Bulacan, north of Manila, where the Cadapan-Empeno case is being tried. However, on September 15 the court allowed Palparan’s transfer to military custody, prompting protests from families of victims and human rights advocates.

While killings appeared to decrease in 2014 compared to recent years, activists, journalists, environmentalists, and tribal leaders continued to be targets of attack. Among those killed was Fausto Orasan, a 64-year-old tribal group leader in the southern Philippines, who was shot by unidentified gunmen on September 13, 2014, while riding his motorcycle in a village in Cagayan de Oro City. Authorities said Orasan had been a leader of  anti-mining efforts in the area. During one week in August, three other tribal leaders were gunned down in different parts of the country, according to the nongovernmental organization Karapatan. Human Rights Watch has long documented attacks on tribal leaders who opposed mining and other extractive business interests in their communities.

On August 24, 2014, unidentified gunmen shot dead human rights lawyer Rodolfo Felicio in Taytay, a city in Rizal province, east of Manila. Felicio was the fifth member of the activist group National Union of People’s Lawyers to have been killed in the past 10 years.

Killings of journalists continued in late 2013 and early 2014: local media reported at least 26 such killings since Aquino took office in 2010. The trial of the Maguindanao Massacre case, in which 58 people—mostly journalists and media workers—were killed in 2009 allegedly by the militia of the powerful Ampatuan clan in the southern Philippines, was set back by the murder on November 18 of Dennis Sakal, a potential witness for the prosecution.

Although the Aquino administration vowed in 2012 to expedite investigations into killings of journalists by creating a “superbody,” little progress appears to have been made. The superbody had only processed four cases at time of writing, resulting in the conviction of five people. However, the alleged masterminds who planned and financed these killings remained at large.

 A “death squad” in the southern city of Tagum that killed hundreds of suspected criminals, including children, was the subject of a Human Rights Watch report in May. The so-called Tagum Death Squad also branched out into contract killing, targeting a range of victims for as little as US$110 per hit, including journalists, village officials, business rivals, alleged drug dealers, tribal leaders, and a judge. The death squad was allegedly formed and financed by then-mayor Rey Uy with the cooperation of city hall officials and members of the local police force.

Despite evidence directly implicating Uy in the death squad operation, the authorities have not arrested him or others implicated in the Tagum City killings.

Death squad killings have been reported in cities across the country, with unidentified gunmen on motorcycles targeting people in public in broad daylight in so-called “riding in tandem” killings. Official responses in 2014 to stem such killings included police roadblocks specifically for motorcycles, banning motorcyclists from riding in pairs, and a proposed law that would ban the use of motorcycle helmets, so cyclists could not hide their identities.

Rampant police corruption seriously undermines the country’s criminal justice system and   exacerbates the problem of impunity.

In January, an investigation by the Commission on Human Rights implicated members of the Laguna provincial police in the systematic torture of at least 22 inmates that began in February 2013. The police dealt out torture in a secret location using a spinning wheel like in the “Wheel of Fortune” game show in the United States. At time of writing, 10 police officers implicated in the torture had been dismissed from duty and faced prosecution, while several others were being investigated.

A November report by the Department of Justice detailed allegations of torture by members of the police in Zamboanga City against several suspects arrested in connection with the September 2013 attack on the city by Islamist militants. Human Rights Watch documented several instances of mistreatment of the detainees, several of them children, as well as the militants’ use of civilians as human shields. The government has not investigated the alleged abuses.

President Aquino made trips to Europe and the US in 2014 in which Philippine activists protested against the government’s human rights record, particularly the lack of accountability for abuses. The United States and European Union governments have sought to address the problem of impunity, such as by funding programs to improve the performance of police, prosecutors, and the courts.

The US government was more vocal in 2014 than in previous years in communicating its concerns about impunity to the Aquino administration. The US had conditioned a small part ($3 million) of its $20 million annual military aid to the Philippines on improvement in the human rights situation. In 2014, the US increased the military financial assistance to $50 million but most of it was allotted for the Philippine Navy, which has a better human rights record than the army.

The  EU-Philippines Justice Support Program, now in its second phase, aims to improve  the Philippine criminal justice system by, among other things, training police officers and investigators.