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Press Statement
July 1, 2008
RP's Election as VP in UN HRC Does Not Mean That It Is Doing Its
Homework
The Philippine UPR Watch* is appalled at the way the Arroyo government is
making a big deal of the Philippines' election as vice president of the
United Nations Human Rights Council. Lest people are misled and deceived,
we have it in good authority that these positions are usually filled on a
rotation basis within the regional/continental groups.
This means that the Asian countries merely appointed one of its members to
be vice president for a year. This year is the Philippines turn. That is
why a country with a bloodstained human rights record can be accorded such
administrative position on the rights body.
It does not mean that the HRC is patting the Arroyo government at the back
for being "committed to the protection and promotion of human rights". It
does not mean that the Philippine Government is doing its homework, plain
and simple.
Hence we find it deplorable, that the government through the Department of
Foreign Affairs is crowing about the government's election as though it is
worthy of admiration. The government's spin doctors are at it again, just
like what they did during the session of the HRC last June 2-18. The
Philippine Government boasted that it is a 'rights-based' State signing UN
core documents and enacting laws that supposedly protect the rights of its
citizens.
But the grim reality is that the killings, disappearances and other rights
violations continue with impunity. Instead of really addressing the human
rights situation in the country, the Arroyo government has resorted to
various forms of window dressing and lies before the international
community to hide their accountabilities. But the Filipino people know for
a fact that it is a complete failure in fulfilling its obligations to
international rights treaties. Justice for the victims remains elusive.
Only a handful of low-level perpetrators have so far been convicted.
Furthermore, the VP election would be worth bragging about if the Arroyo
government would really uphold the UN processes and mechanisms. The
problem is, the Philippines undermines these same process and mechanisms.
Last April, Sec. Eduardo Ermita made a mockery of the Universal Periodic
Review (UPR) when he presented a report of the country's human rights
record that is full of lies even hypocritically stating that "there is an
open and vibrant democracy in the Philippines" and that the government is
"a human rights defender".
This June, Ambassador Erlinda F. Basilio through a six-page statement
uncouthly lambasted and vilified the report and recommendations of Prof.
Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions. Moreover, towards the end of the UPR process, the Philippine
government chose to ignore Alston's recommendations as well as the
recommendation to invite other special procedures with regard to human
rights on the country. This is the kind of Vice President that the Human
Rghts Council will have to bear. ##
Reference:
Rev. Fr. Rex RB. Reyes, Jr.
General Secretary, National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP)
Head of UPR Watch Delegation (Mobile No. 0918 944 7538, NCCP landline
9293745)
*The Philippine UPR Watch is a network of human rights advocates and
families of victims of human rights abuses. It has sent delegations last
April and June to Geneva, Switzerland to attend sessions of the United
Nations Human Rights Council particularly for the Universal Periodic
Review. For the June sessions of the HRC, members of the UPR Watch
delegation were: Fr. Rex Reyes of the National Council of Churches in the
Philippines (NCCP), Marie Enriquez of Karapatan, Atty. Edre Olalia of the
National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL), Edita Burgos of Desaparecidos,
Donnie Mapanao of Migrante-Switzerland, Trisha Garvida of Karapatan and Ed
Cubelo of Toyota Union-Philippines)
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