CHR: Attacks vs rights defenders systematic
A special inquiry conducted by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) last year has found systematic attacks against human rights defenders in the country.
In a landmark report released yesterday, the CHR said the government not only failed to adopt the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, but it “purposely engaged in acts that frustrate the fulfillment of the rights provided therein.”
“The Commission finds that there is a systematic attack against human rights defenders across all sectors of civil society,” read the 104-page report.
“Such attack is characterized by a widespread and similar pattern of abhorrent acts, practices and omissions that put the life, liberty and security of human rights defenders at great risk. These acts largely remain unabated and human rights defenders are oftentimes left without any remedy to protect themselves,” it added.
The report was based on submissions and testimonies presented during the four-day dialogue held in September last year.
Representatives from various government agencies, human rights groups and other civil society organizations took part in the proceedings.
The inquiry was launched amid reports of attacks against human rights defenders, including cases of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, threats, harassment and restrictions on their freedoms of expression, association and assembly.
The report detailed different abuses and violations in the country, including distortion of the concept of human rights; public vilification of human rights defenders and red-tagging or labelling groups as communists or terrorists.
The CHR said the government has the responsibility to implement the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1998.
It provides, among others, the responsibility of the government to protect and promote human rights of all, including that of human rights defenders.
“The role of human rights defenders in promoting human rights and advocating for change is essential in upholding the fundamental values of a democratic society,” read the report.
“Restricting the ability of human rights defenders and civic society to counter repressive practices is shortsighted and counterproductive to the stability of our democracy. All forms of violence against human rights defenders must immediately cease,” it added.
It urged the executive to publicly recognize the work of human rights defenders and desist from red tagging and labelling them as terrorists or enemies of the state; adopt principles defined in international human rights instruments; prohibit violations and investigate all allegations and order the release of those arbitrarily detained.
The commission also recommended to Congress to make violent, oppressive or discriminatory acts committed against human rights defenders punishable in criminal laws; enact laws that would protect the work of human rights defenders and review existing laws that criminalize or restrict their work.
For the judiciary, the CHR recommended the implementation of rules of procedure for cases of human rights violations; setting up of a legal aid system to support and protect human rights defenders; develop jurisprudence in accord with international human rights obligations and promulgate decisions that interpret domestic laws and resolve controversies in favor of human rights defenders.
The commission also recommended strengthening civil society by avoiding interference in network building and removing administrative hurdles in the formation of legitimate groups.
“The commission does not condone violence, whether committed by State or nonState actors. It merely emphasizes the duty of the State to respect the civil and political rights of its citizens, especially as they fight for their economic and social well-being,” read the report.
“There is no excuse for the State to commit extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture or any other form of human rights violation against any of its citizens, including human rights defenders,” it added.
Group warns of more abuses
Abuses and harassment of human rights defenders are expected to intensify with the enactment of the AntiTerrorism Law, rights advocate group Karapatan said yesterday.
“In a matter of days after the Anti-Terrorism Act was signed, the harassment of human rights defenders in the country has already visibly worsened, from policemen attempting to serve a moot arrest warrant, to the arrests of activists on clearly falsified murder charges,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said in a statement.
Palabay was referring to the serving of an arrest warrant against her last Tuesday by two policemen in civilian clothes, one of whom masqueraded as a delivery man of a courier service company. The arrest warrant was in connection with a perjury case filed against Palabay and other activists by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. last year.
The arrest warrant, however, was already recalled by the court last April 29 after she posted P18,000 bail bond.
Palabay was also referring to the recent arrest of human rights activists, pastor Dan San Andres and Jenelyn Nagrampa, based on supposed false charges.
“The arrests of Pastor Dan San Andres and Jenelyn Nagrampa are nothing more than efforts to threaten human rights defenders and to vilify and malign our work,” Palabay said.
“We urgently demand their immediate release as we call for the halt to all forms of attacks against human rights defenders in the Philippines,” she added.
San Andres, a pastor of United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) and spokesman for KarapatanBikol, was arrested on Thursday afternoon at his house in Sipocot, Camarines Sur while Nagrampa, national vice-chair of Gabriela and a village councilor in Barangay San Isidro, Nabua town also in Camarines Sur, was arrested at her house last Tuesday.
San Andres and Nagrampa were accused of double murder in relation to an alleged New People’s Army (NPA) ambush that resulted in the deaths of two soldiers in Ragay, Camarines Sur on May 13, 2018.
Palabay pointed out that San Andres and Nagrampa have already filed their respective counter-affidavits during the preliminary investigation last December where they vehemently denied participation in the alleged ambush.
Palabay said it was earlier revealed that during the alleged ambush incident, San Andres was conducting a mass in his parish at the UCCP Church South Centro in Sipocot, Camarines Sur, while Nagrampa was campaigning for the barangay elections.
“The concoctions of cases linking human rights defenders to alleged NPA encounters is already an old and tired tactic repeatedly orchestrated by the military to harass, threaten, intimidate and criminalize us as well as to publicly vilify us as ‘terrorists’ or ‘terrorist sympathizers.’ This is already happening way before the Anti-Terrorism Act was signed into law,” Palabay said.
“With its enactment, such incidents and patterns of human rights violations are expected to intensify in the mad rampage against human rights defenders, dissenters and critics of this administration,” she added.