Philippines launches human rights tracking database

The Philippines has launched a tracking database aimed at ensuring smooth information sharing and reporting of accomplishments and best practices for the promotion, protection, and fulfillment of human rights in the country.

The Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat (PHRCS) said the Philippines’ National Recommendations Tracking Database (PH-NRTD) was launched during a workshop conducted in Clark, Pampanga, from February 8 to February 10.

According to PHRCS, PH-NRTD will become the country’s main repository of information provided by all government agencies concerned to address recommendations arising from constructive dialogues with United Nations (UN) human rights mechanisms and the UN Human Rights Council through its Universal Periodic Review.

It will likewise serve as a platform to assess the human rights commitments made by Executive offices that are laid out in the 3rd Philippine Human Rights Plan (PHRP) for 2018–2022. The next PHRP is scheduled for release this year.

"But the database is not merely a data-gathering tool…It also brings to concrete form our seriousness to actively engage and share with the UN and the world our best practices in complying with our human rights obligations by way of relevant laws, policies, programs, projects, and other initiatives," PHRCS Executive Director Severo Catura said.

Catura said the Philippines is now the second Asian country, next to Malaysia, to have piloted the use of a human rights tracking database.

Those who attended the workshop were officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Justice, Office of the Court Administrator-Supreme Court, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Migrant Workers, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of the Interior and Local Government, National Economic and Development Authority, Philippine Commission on Women, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, National Council on Disability Affairs, Department of Education, Department of Health, Armed Forces of the Philippines-Center for Law and Armed Conflict, Council for the Welfare of Children, Dangerous Drugs Board, Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council, Philippine National Police-Human Rights Affairs Office, and Philippine Statistics Authority. — VBL, GMA Integrated News