At the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council from February 22 to March 19, 2021, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Mary Lawlor, presented her report on the situation of human rights defenders in member countries of the UN Humans Rights Council, with the title “Final warning: death threats and killings of human rights defenders“. Amongst the countries reported of, the Philippines are the deadliest country for human rights defenders after Colombia and Brazil (but with almost the same amount of killings as Brazil). Also, the report states referring to the NGO Global Witness, that the Philippines together with Colombia where responsible for half of the killings of environmentalists worldwide in 2019 (which was the deadliest year of all times for environmentalists). The report also takes in the practice of red-tagging (page 12, point 59), the death threats and murder of Zara Alvarez (page 14, point 74) and that “legislation designed to protect human rights defenders is also pending in (Mongolia and) the Philippines” (page 17, point 79).
A decision on the human rights situation in the Philippines is scheduled for the upcoming 47th session from June 26 to July 7, 2021.