Quezon City, Philippines — Various civil society organizations (CSOs), including Council for Health and Development, Bantay Bakuna and the Coalition for People’s Right to Health participated in “CSOs Consultation on the UN Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines”, a two-day consultation workshop held from June 22 to 23, 2022 in Quezon City, National Capital Region. The UPR is a peer review conducted by the UN Human Rights Council to assess the human rights situation of all 193 UN Member States and its compliance with international conventions, laws, and statutes.

The activity was organized and facilitated by Council for People’s Development and Governance (CPDG) and Commission on Human Rights (CHR), in cooperation with the United Nations (UN) Philippine Office. Aside from the CSOs, diplomatic envoys from other countries are also present at the activity.

In the consultation workshop, representatives from the CHR discussed the process of UPR and what is the role of CSOs in the UN. Several guest speakers from various organizations shared their insights and analysis on the civil and political rights situation of the country as well as the economic and social situation. CHR also presented their assessment on civil and political rights, economic and social rights situations, and their recommendation for the UPR.

During the open discussion and workshop, CSOs discussed the worsening human rights violations such as harassment, red-tagging and killing of activists, journalists, health workers, farmers, workers, and indigenous people by the state security forces, extra-judicial killings (EJKs) during the war on drugs, and censoring alternative news and progressive groups’ websites. CSOs also raised the socio-economic issues that the government failed to address such as unjust wages, lack of proper social amelioration for the poor, lack of comprehensive pandemic response and accessible health services, among others.

By the end the of activity, CSOs put forward their recommendations to the CHR, to the government, and to the UN. The recommendations include: cease the red-tagging of activists and uphold human rights, repeal laws that curtail civil and political rights, end neo-liberal economic policies that harm the social and economic development of the people and country, and the government must uphold international covenants, laws and statutes that the Philippines is a signatory to.

CSOs made it clear that the human rights situation in our country is worsening and that the former Duterte administration must be held accountable for its human rights violations. CSOs asserted the importance of the UPR process in keeping the Philippine government in-check on its obligations in upholding human rights. The organizations also stressed the need for vigilance on how the incoming administration will address the country’s human rights situation, especially now that the son of a dictator and human rights violator is the president.