While PhilRights’ concerns encompass the entire range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, the institution focuses on certain human rights issues, including:

• Child Rights in Conflict Areas

• Human Rights and Mining

• Human Rights and Justice, including Restorative Justice

• Human Rights and Peace

• Economic. Social and Cultural Rights

• Political Repression

• Terrorism and Human Rights

1. CHILD RIGHTS IN CONFLICT AREAS

To contribute to the efforts to eradicate Child Soldiering, the institution conducted a pioneering study to profile and document the situation of Children in Armed Conflict in key areas of the country. Government agencies and NGOs now have information they can use in the development of interventions that will address the needs of child soldiers. Child rights advocates, human rights organizations and other groups now have data they can use for advocacy and lobby activities.

The project was able to raise awareness on the phenomenon of child soldiering not only in conflict areas in Mindanao but also on a national level. The issue caught the attention of the national media and brought to people’s consciousness the violations committed against children because of armed conflict. State and non-state armed groups were compelled to come out with declarations and statements clarifying their policies on children and denying the practice of child soldiering.

Currently, PhilRights is engaged in mainstreaming Child Rights Programming in two provinces in Mindanao, involving local government units, civil society organizations and children. Coherence and consistency among child-related policies and programs is also being sought.

Aside from the researches elaborating the condition of child soldiers, PhilRights has also conducted educational discussions to disseminate the information in selected study sites. The two target areas for the information dissemination and advocacy are Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato, where incidence of recruitment of children as soldiers was found. Among the intervention programs to be formulated in these two areas are: These are: (1) Awareness-Raising and Popular Education Activities; (2) Trainings; (3) Agenda-building and Planning Workshops; (4) Children and Youth camp; (5) Advocacy and Lobby; and (6) Information, Campaign, and Education (EIC) Material Development.

2. HUMAN RIGHTS AND PEACE

To help institutionalize Human Rights and Peace in the public school system, and thereby contribute to the building of a human rights culture, PhilRights is providing modules and training workshops among public high school teachers. These education activities will ensure effective training methodologies and raise the capability of teachers in integrating HR and Peace in the various subject areas in the secondary school curriculum. To ensure that teacher-trainees are constantly updated on HR and Peace concepts and issues, PhilRights periodically provides them with education and information materials.

Teachers exert lasting influence in the shaping of children’s consciousness. In the communites, teachers are respected opinion leaders. When they themselves become advocates of peace and human rights, a multiplier effect will be felt in the schools and communities.

Those who participated in PhilRights’ trainings said they learned how to seamlessly integrate HR and Peace into the various subject areas like Social Studies, Science, Mathematics, English and Filipino. They learned how to do this in a creative and meaningful manner. This is significant because most of the teachers had already participated in a number of HR integration trainings but were still confused as to how to do integration. They had the mistaken notion of HR as a separate domain of discussion, distinct from the subject areas of Science, Chemistry, Biology, English, etc. which they teach.

3. ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

PhilRights has implemented projects since 1995 starting with ESC Phase 1, with a series of consultations and workshops, results of which were packaged in “Monitoring Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: the Philippine Experience”. This publication provides a discussion of the ESC framework, a glossary of ESC-related terms, and newly articulated standards and indicators.

Building on the Phase 1 project, ESC Phase 2 focused on the setting of standards and indicators of the five specific ESC rights (the right to food, health, housing, education and work) from the viewpoint of grassroots/communities. Grassroots consultations validated the standards and indicators culled from ESC Phase 1 and resulted in another publication, “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: The Grassroots’ View.”

In the third and final phase of the ESC project, PhilRights is training community leaders, organizers, and supportive local officials on basic human rights, paralegal skills, and human rights monitoring and documentation. This is in preparation for the setting-up of a community-based multi-partite monitoring and documentation system for ESC rights. This project will facilitate grassroots participation in monitoring compliance of the government to its ESCR (rights to health, education, food, housing and work) obligations.

The institution has been recognized for its trailblazing efforts in monitoring and documentation of ESC rights.

4. HUMAN RIGHTS AND MINING

Development aggression and human rights violations are sharply illustrated in communities suffering from the harsh consequences of large-scale mining projects. The institution is building the capability of indigenous communities, NGOs, church workers and local government officials to monitor and document human rights violations in mining communities.

Spearheading the monitoring and documentation of the violations on the people’s rights to land, PhilRights is helping the grassroots campaign against the large-scale mining operations in Nueva Viscaya and Oriental Mindoro. Mining in these areas, as conducted by giant companies, has already compromised the environmental sustainability and agricultural life of the people.

PhilRights’ role in this campaign includes: (1) Human rights education through forums, film showing, and dissemination of IEC materials to all the members of the selected communities, including the local officials; (2) Situational analysis and review of literature on HR monitoring and documentation; and (3) Institutional strengthening through training seminars and exposure trips.

5. HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE (INCLUDING RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

PhilRights has also been working on issues concerning the Philippine criminal justice system. In recent years, advocacy was focused on the abolition of the death penalty. Researches have also been undertaken exploring the application of restorative justice framework and practices in the country’s criminal justice system.

Through the national network Mamamayang Tutol sa Bitay – Movement for Restorative Justice (MTB-MRJ) that PhilRights organized in 2004, the campaign for the abolition of the death penalty was strengthened. Information dissemination, educational and training activities, conferences, and studies conducted by PhilRights contributed to a broader support for the repeal of the death penalty law. The campaign stressed the issue of death penalty as a violation of the right to life as well as its anti-poor bias. Also emphasized were the arguments that the death penalty does not deter criminality. The campaigns contributed to shifts in public consciousness regarding the punitive character of the country’s criminal justice system, and bore fruit when R.A. 7659 (The Death Penalty Law) was finally repealed in mid-2006.

Following the victory over the repeal of R.A. 7659, PhilRights is now focused on the bigger task of popularizing the concept of restorative justice among the pillars of the justice system.

6. BURNING HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES/CONCERNS: POLITICAL REPRESSION/CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS, GLOBALIZATION, DEVELOPMENT AGGRESSION, TERRORISM

The institution also works on issues that have blatant and direct impact on civil and political, economic, social and cultural rights. These include: Terrorism, Extrajudicial Killings, Globalization, Development Aggression and Terrorism, among others. PhilRights contributes to the debate and discussion on these issues through education and information as well as research work. Studies and analyses are published in the institution’s regular publications (HR Forum and In Focus) as well as in Occasional Papers.