Hon. Jose De Venecia
Speaker of the House
Representative, 4th Dist., Pangasinan
RVM-423, House of Representatives
Hon. Prospero Nograles
Chairperson, Riles Committee
Representative, 1st Dist., Davao City
Rm. 404, South-wing, House of Representatives
Hon. Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada
5th flr., Rm. 526 GSIS Bldg.,
Financial center, Roxas Blvd., Pasay City
Dear Representatives/Senator,
On behalf of Human Rights Watch, I am writing to urge you to support Senate Bill 1738, which would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, education, and access to services.
The legislation, scheduled for a hearing of the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment, and Human Resource Development on August 9, would advance human rights protections, address egregious inequalities, and send an important message about the Philippines’ commitment to ensuring a just society for all.
Senate Bill 1738, “Prohibiting Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Providing Penalties Therefor,” would protect people against such discrimination in employment, education, medical care, housing, and the provision of public services. It would also protect the right to association against such discrimination, and would ban forced medical or psychological testing or treatment to determine, or alter, a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
A counterpart bill in the House of Representatives, House Bill No. 634 –sponsored by Reps. Mayong Aguja, Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel and Etta Rosales—has been approved by the House Committee on Civil, Political, and Human Rights on first reading.
The sponsor of the Senate bill, Senator Ramon Revilla, states:
The goal of human and civil rights measures is to protect all persons equally, without distinction or discrimination. This bill, in enshrining protections against abuse and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, advances the promise of the universality of rights. These are not claims to “new rights” or to “special rights”, but rather extend protections for human dignity to include the most vulnerable groups in society, and to publicize and prevent the least visible and most easily concealed violations.
The proposed legislation would also fulfill the Philippines’ commitments under international human rights law. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)—to which the Philippines is a party—bans discrimination and ensures equality before the law in its articles 2 and 26. In the 1994 case of Nicholas Toonen v Australia, the UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors compliance with and adjudicates violations under the ICCPR, held that “sexual orientation” was a status protected under the ICCPR from discrimination.
Human rights bodies have also increasingly recognized gender identity and expression as unjustifiable grounds for discrimination. In the cases of Goodwin v United Kingdom and I. v United Kingdom, for example, the European Court of Human Rights required states to change transsexuals’ legal identities and papers to match their post-operative genders. Failure to do so, the Court found, would violate not only their right to respect for their private lives, but their freedom to marry. In the 2003 case of Van Kuck v Germany (involving the right to non-discriminatory insurance coverage of sex reassignment surgery) the European Court affirmed “the applicant’s freedom to define herself as a female person, one of the most basic essentials of self-determination.” It declared that “the very essence” of the European Convention on Human Rights “being respect for human dignity and human freedom, protection is given to the right of transsexuals to personal development and to physical and moral security.”
Countries on almost every continent have passed national legislation protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Some—including Ecuador, Fiji, South Africa, and Portugal—have expressly banned such discrimination in their constitutions. Passage of this legislation would place the Philippines at the forefront of the international community in affirming and extending what Senator Revilla calls “the promise of universality.”
A hearing on the bill has been scheduled before the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment, and Human Resource Development, on August 9. Human Rights Watch urges you to give this bill your full support.
Sincerely,
Scott Long
Director
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program
Human Rights Watch
