Bill protecting human rights defenders hurdles House panel

MANILA – A House of Representatives panel on Tuesday approved a measure seeking to promote and protect the rights of human rights defenders (HRDs).

During the hearing, the House Committee on Human Rights, chaired by Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, approved a substitute bill to House Bills 77, 256, 2484, and 4124.

The bill provides for rights and guarantees to fully safeguard the efforts and activities of HRDs in promoting, protecting, and fulfilling human rights.

A human rights defender, as defined in the bill, refers to any person who, individually or in association with others, acts or seeks to act to protect, promote, or strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms and welfare of the people at the local, national, regional, and international levels.

Among the HRD rights and freedoms this bill seeks to respect, protect, and promote are the right to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms; right to form groups, associations, and organizations; right to peaceful assembly; right to seek, receive, and disseminate information; right to privacy; right to develop and advocate human rights ideas; right to solicit, receive, and utilize resources; right to access, communicate, and cooperate with international and regional human rights bodies and mechanisms; right to effective remedy and full reparation; freedom from intimidation and reprisal; and freedom of movement.

The bill also aims to institutionalize and enforce state obligations to provide protection to HRDs, and to establish effective legal remedies for violations of their rights.

An independent collegial body, to be known as the Human Rights Defenders Protection Committee, shall be created to protect human rights defenders from intimidation and reprisals and ensure accountability for acts of intimidation against them.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, author of the bill, said the emergence of HRDs is both an indictment and a symptom of the failure and neglect of the government to fully protect, promote, and fulfill human rights.

“The tragic plight of Filipino HRDs as a result of the relentless persecution against them by the government shamefully aggravates the State’s culpable non-compliance with the constitutional mandate that the ‘State values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect for human rights’,” Lagman said. ■