Filtered By: Topstories
News

DFA source: Arroyo failed to send rights treaties to Senate for ratification


The Department of Foreign (DFA) has long recommended the ratification of the United Nations treaty against enforced disappearance – only that, the Arroyo administration had not transmitted the ratification instruments to the Senate. DFA secretary Alberto Romulo said the recommendation to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance had long been submitted to Malacañang during Arroyo’s term. Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman had earlier criticized the DFA for not pushing through with the ratification campaign for the treaty. During the budget hearing for the DFA, Rep.Lagman said he would hold his concurrence to the approval of the agency’s budget if it fails to explain why the treaty has not been ratified. The department, in compliance sent a letter to Rep. Lagman’s office explaining it has done its part recommending the ratification of the treaty. The DFA recommended the ratification of two UN treaties, one on enforced disappearance and the other on the 1995 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that tackles war crimes, genocide, and other crimes against humanity. Arroyo administration faced human rights abuses But the instruments for ratification of both treaties had not been transmitted to the Senate during the nine year term of former President Arroyo. “The Arroyo administration was facing serious charges of human rights abuses; that’s why the government was not bent on ratifying those treaties," said a senior diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But we are hopeful these conventions will finally be passed under the new administration of President Aquino." UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston – who had conducted a mission the Philippines on February 2007 – said that in the last six years, there have been many extrajudicial executions of leftist activists. He said those killings involved members of civil society, human rights activists, trade unionists, and land reform activists. As a result, “the killings intimidated a vast number of civil society actors, and narrowed the country’s political discourse." Military’s ‘state of denial’ on extrajudicial killings Alston said the number of political activists killed in the six year period of 2001-2007 ranges from 100-800. The executions, according to Alston, were the result of the government’s counter insurgency strategy which had the government military accusing civil society groups of serving as “fronts" of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA). “The military is in a state of denial concerning the numerous extrajudicial executions in which its soldiers are implicated," said the summary of Alston’s report. “Military officers argue that many or all of the extrajudicial executions have actually been committed by the communist insurgents as part of an internal purge," he said. – MRT, GMANews.TV

Tags: humanrights
LOADING CONTENT