In a statement dated February 12, 2024, the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR) called for a review and reassessment of the mandate of the controversial National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). The CHR recommendation came after UN-Special Rapporteur Irene Khan called for the abolition of the Task Force on February 2, 2024. Khan argued that the NTF-ELCAC was outdated and did not take into account the ongoing peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
The CHR emphasized the importance of upholding human rights standards and offered to support the NTF-ELCAC in fulfilling its mandate through training and policy advice. The Commission also announced that it would conduct investigations into so-called “red-tagging” (i.e., branding individuals or organizations as “terrorist”). This was important “to nuance the dialogue between the government and civil society on the harms brought by these actions to the life, liberty, and security of the public.”
Photo © Raffy Lerma