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  • Human Rights in the Philippines
    The Philippines is a multi-party democracy with an elected president and legislature, and an active civil society sector. The government in 2012 adopted important legislation improving reproductive health and domestic workers rights and making enforced disappearances a criminal offense, as well as seeking ways to improve the criminal justice system. Extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances have decreased since President Benigno S. Aquino III took office in 2010. However, harassment and violence implicating military and police personnel against political activists and journalists continue. The country has a vibrant media, but free expression suffered a serious setback when Congress passed a law allowing stiff criminal sentences for online defamation.
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Philippines

  • Philippines: Manila again drops ball in Human Rights Council
    Apr 4, 2013
    Last June, the Philippine delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council was an embarrassing no-show during an important vote on human rights abuses in Syria.
  • Philippines: A Year of Pluses, Minuses on Rights
    Feb 1, 2013
    The Philippine government adopted landmark human rights legislation in 2012, but failed to make significant progress in holding the security forces accountable for serious abuses, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2013.
  • Philippines: Milestone Law Criminalizes Forced Disappearances
    Dec 21, 2012

    The new law that criminalizes enforced disappearances in the Philippines is the first of its kind in Asia and a major milestone in ending this horrific human rights violation, Human Rights Watch said today. President Benigno S. Acquino III signed the law today.

  • Philippines: Landmark Law Crucial for Women’s Health
    Dec 16, 2012

    The Philippines’ expected passage of a reproductive health law will be a massive step forward to promote women’s health and lives, Human Rights Watch said today. The prime objectives of the Reproductive Health Bill, which is scheduled for a final vote during the week of December 17, 2012, include increasing access to a range of reproductive health services and reducing maternal deaths.

  • A law that can make PH a leader
    Nov 22, 2012
    I approached the school—high in the hills of northern Luzon—with a bit of trepidation. It was late in the day, and schools that lack the joyous cacophony of children playing always seem a little eerie to me.
  • Philippines: No Progress Disarming, Demobilizing Militias
    Nov 21, 2012
    The Aquino administration has done little to disarm and demobilize militias and paramilitary forces three years after the massacre of 58 people by the “private army” of a powerful political clan in the southern Philippines.
  • Keep Soldiers Out of Schools and Universities
    Nov 20, 2012
    The use of schools and other education institutions for military purposes by armed forces and non-state armed groups during wartime endangers students and their education around the world, said the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack in a study released today.
  • Civil Society Denounces Adoption of Flawed ASEAN Human Rights Declaration
    Nov 19, 2012
    Disregarding the deep concerns expressed by senior United Nations officials, human rights experts and hundreds of civil society and grassroots organisations at the national, regional and international levels, ASEAN leaders nonetheless adopted yesterday an “ASEAN Human Rights Declaration” that undermines, rather than affirms, international human rights law and standards.
  • Philippines: Aquino Should Sign Landmark Disappearances Law
    Oct 17, 2012

    President Benigno Aquino III should sign into law a bill criminalizing enforced disappearances in the Philippines.

  • Philippines: Amend Draft Law on Child Soldiers
    Oct 16, 2012
    The Philippines Senate should remove a provision in a draft law that allows for the prosecution of the parents of children recruited to be soldiers. With that revision, the proposed law, the Special Protection of Children in Situations of Armed Conflict Bill, should be enacted into law, the groups said.
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