‘Petition urges UN to investigate human rights violations’
DAVAO CITY – Human rights advocate Migrante International has launched a campaign urging the United Nations to investigate the alleged “gross human rights violations committed against Filipinos” by the Duterte government.
“Its aim is to present the collective demand of Filipino migrants for a UN investigation on the exacerbating human rights situation in the Philippines under the Duterte regime,” said Migrante International Chairperson Joanna Concepcion.
She said a global petition was launched recently in Hong Kong to call the attention of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to the worsening human rights violations and extrajudicial killings in the Philippines since President Rodrigo Duterte rose to power 3 years ago.
Hundreds of Filipinos, mostly workers in the former British colony and supporters from various Overseas Filipino Workers’ groups and migrants’ rights advocates from different countries participated in the launching of the petition.
They also held an indignation rally at the Philippine Consulate. Concepcion said the event was jointly organized by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines and by the Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines.
She also said the Philippines does not deserve to retain its seat in the UN Human Rights Council because of the Duterte regime’s abhorrent human rights record. The Philippines was part of the 18 member states elected by the UN General Assembly in January for a 3-year term to the Human Rights Council. Calls for independent investigations on the brutal killings in the context of Duterte’s so-called war on drugs and counterinsurgency program have been repeatedly rejected by the Filipino regime.
Expressing support to the call of 11 UN Special Rapporteurs to push through with an independent investigation, Concepcion said the global petition highlighted the impact of the killings on OFW families and advocates. “Our children and family members have been directly affected by the thousands of unlawful deaths and police killings as a result of the so-called war on drugs. Our organizations and leaders are maligned, harassed and threatened by state forces. We all suffer from the repressive imposition of Martial Law in the island of Mindanao,” the petition stated.
In addition, the petition also sought justice for the socioeconomic rights of Filipino migrants and their families who are yoked with unjust state exactions while suffering from government neglect.
Despite contributing $33 billion in foreign remittances annually and another $20 billion worth of funds in the coffers of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Concepcion said the “Duterte government has spent very little resources to protect us and has neglected its duty in assisting migrant workers in distress.
There has been no adequate legal support provided to migrants who are facing legal cases abroad.” Aside from the inadequate protection accorded to OFWs who are facing severe exploitation and various forms of abuse, she said the petition also highlighted the plight of 81 OFWs who are in death row.
It likewise pointed out to the hundreds of unresolved cases of OFW deaths and the absence of assistance to thousands of OFWs who are languishing in detention facilities abroad. She said more than just the inadequacy of a genuine reintegration program, the petition slammed the dire situation where Filipino “migrants will be returning to a country where our basic human rights are being trampled on daily by the tyranny of our own government and state forces.”
“People’s organizations that have for decades defended and supported the rights and welfare of Filipino people and migrants are being systematically attacked through unscrupulous government regulations, red-tagging, financial witch-hunt and other forms of harassment,” according to the petition.
Concepcion said the petition demands for an end to the human rights violations in the Philippines and to make the Duterte government accountable for its crimes. (Mindanao Examiner)
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