Candidates urged: Make human rights a core value of governance

Human rights groups on Wednesday called on all candidates in the May 9 national and local elections to make human rights as one of the core values of their platform of governance.

At a media forum led by the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, some 100 "human rights defenders" launched their human rights agenda, which they said candidates must adopt.

The gathering was also an occasion to asses the human rights situation of the country from Cory Aquino to Benigno Aquino III, a full circle of post-EDSA administrations spanning 30 years on February 25.

“The Human Rights Agenda (HRA) will be brought to the attention of all candidates and political parties in this coming May elections," said PAHRA chairperson Max de Mesa.

^{Activists along with relatives of the victims of human rights violations march to EDSA Shrine on Sunday, September 21, to mark the 42nd anniversary of the declaration of martial law. --GMA News}

According to him, the HRA drew its substance from the painful lessons learned from a range of human rights violations in different government agencies, and that the issues should be addressed by crafting and implementing a national human rights action plan (NHRAP).

Moreover, de Mesa said: “We must progressively struggle for greater freedoms and fuller enjoyment of our rights.”

PAHRA said that a rights-based form of governance must embrace the following concerns:

- fulfillment of international human rights obligations;
- ending impunity;
- ensuring peace and security;
- promotion of economic, social and cultural rights;
- environmental protection;
- national actions towards climate justice;
- respecting and protecting the land and resource rights of indigenous peoples; and
- protection of human rights defenders.
 

Likewise, the HRA must be reflected in human rights laws and practice in the country.

For her part, PAHRA secretary-general Rose Trajano said the present administrations' Second Philippine Human Rights Plan (PHRP II), which was presented by the Presidential Human Rights Committee in November 2015, has been a source of concern among members of the civil society.

The PHRC II, which supposedly contained information about the government’s accomplishments based on various United Nations Treaty Bodies, was drawn out without public participation and full  transparency.

Also at the media forum, PAHRA stressed that 30 years after EDSA, with human rights abuses still being practiced, the Aquino administration might well be remembered as a lost chance for bold measures to nail down impunity. —Jerbert Briola/LBG, GMA News