Advocacy

What is Advocacy-Arbeit?

As non-governmental organizations, we represent the interests of those affected by human rights violations in the Philippines vis-à-vis the human rights committees and bodies of international cooperation of the German government and international organizations such as the European Union and the United Nations.

We share statements with relevant agencies and institutions at strategically opportune times and brief political decision-makers and multipliers in a manner appropriate to the target group. Moreover, we network with Philippine and international partners in order to organize joint side events during the sessions of the human rights bodies of the EU and the UN, among others.

Human rights in the Philippines

By signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and ratifying various UN human rights treaties, the Philippines has committed itself to protecting, respecting and guaranteeing human rights. Implementation is anchored in the Philippine constitution of 1987 and other agreements such as the Bill of Rights and institutions such as the Philippine Human Rights Commission (CHR). Of the nine most important UN human rights agreements, the Philippines has ratified eight, including the UN Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance has yet to be ratified by the Philippines. The national Anti-Enforced Disappearance Act of 2012 has not yet been utilized.

Nonetheless, the number of human rights violations reported and experienced by Philippine partner organizations has been increasing steadily since 2001.

Under the former government of President Rodrigo Duterte (2016-2022), new forms of human rights violations related to the so-called “war on drugs” occurred. Extrajudicial killings were utilized on a large scale to combat drug-related crime. According to estimates by the CHR and various human rights groups, Duterte’s anti-drug campaign claimed at least 27,000 lives in 2018. Most of the victims were from the economically poorer population strata. So far, there has been no progress with regards to the judicial processing of these murders. Only in two cases have the perpetrators been convicted since 2016: in 2018 in the case of the killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos and in 2023 in the case of the killing of 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz and 14-year-old Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman.

Not only the lack of thorough and impartial investigations, but also Duterte’s anti-human rights and violence-glorifying rhetoric fostered widespread impunity in the country.

During Duterte’s six years in office, there has been an increase in enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, fabricated charges, intimidation, and repression of civil society, human rights defenders, indigenous people, journalists and members of the political opposition. The Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), which was passed in July 2020, has become a common tool to intimidate and silence government critics due to the vague and broad definition of the term “terrorism.” The controversial National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) in particular has increasingly used the ATA to denounce human rights defenders. The NTF-ELCAC was created as the central implementing body for Duterte’s whole-of-nation approach to end the communist insurgency under Executive Order 70 (EO70).

On June 30, 2022, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, the son of former dictator Marcos, assumed the presidency after a clear electoral victory. Sara Duterte-Carpio, the former president’s daughter, became vice president. However, the human rights situation remains worrying. In various international forums, President Marcos Jr. has reaffirmed his government’s commitment to human rights. Marcos Jr. presents himself as open and willing to cooperate with the international community. However, no clear measures have been taken to create an actual improvement in the human rights situation.

To date, President Marcos Jr. has continued the repressive policies of the previous government. He has not yet taken any measures to combat impunity or end the political persecution of human rights defenders. Despite an alleged new focus on rehabilitation in the government’s anti-drug campaign, also known as the BIDA programme (“Buhay Ingatan, Droga’y Ayaw”/”Take care of life, Don’t want drugs,” November 2022), drug-related killings continue to take place according to documentation from the Third World Study Center of the University of the Philippines (Dahas Project). The Philippine government continues to refuse to cooperate fully with the investigators of the International Criminal Court when it comes to alleged crimes against humanity in the context of the “war on drugs.” This refers to the period between 2011 and 2019, when Rodrigo Duterte was mayor and vice mayor of Davao City and president of the Philippines.

Civic space is also being further restricted under Marcos Jr. The government is deliberately criminalizing human rights defenders and exploiting weaknesses in the dysfunctional judicial system and laws to combat terrorism and money laundering. The narrative that human rights are a “terrorist idea,” which was coined by former President Duterte in particular, has remained unchanged since the change of government. The increasing number of red-tagging attacks and the use of the ATA against human rights defenders have even reinforced the narrative. Red-tagging is a practice in which individuals and organizations are branded as “terrorist” and accused of being members or supporters of the armed communist rebel group New People’s Army (NPA). Trials of numerous imprisoned human rights defenders also continue to drag on without a judicial decision for many years. While the AMP documentation (see AMP Human Rights Report) shows a slight decrease in killings of human rights defenders under Marcos Jr., cases of enforced disappearances have increased, especially since 2023.

Lobby activities

The AMP uses advocacy instruments of civil society to influence decision-makers and multipliers in Germany as well as at the EU and the UN levels with the aim of contributing to an improvement of the human rights situation in the Philippines. This way we are making our concerns and those of our Philippine partners heard on the international stage.

International lobbying for the Philippines is becoming more important as we have been observing constantly shrinking civic spaces in the Philippines.

AMP lobbying activities include the following mechanisms:

German government level: Aide-Mémoire for the German Human Rights Forum (Forum Menschenrechte), AMP Human Rights Report, IAN Report, Parliamentary Technical Discussions.

Download (PDF): AMP report: human rights in the Philippines 2022

Download (PDF): Aide Mémoire – Philippines 2023 (German)

Download (PDF): IAN Dossier Human Rights 2024: Current situation in 16 countries (German)

EU-Level: Joint Letters

Download (PDF): Joint Letter on GSP+ for Philippines 2018

UN level: Civil society shadow report on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, side events at UN Human Rights Council sessions

Download (PDF): Joint Submission to the Summary of Stakeholders Report for the UPR 2022