The Philippines joined Malaysia as one of the two countries in Asia that have piloted the use of a human rights tracking database.
Undersecretary Severo Catura, executive director of the Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat, said Friday the database roll-out follows the conduct of a 3-day workshop to officially launch the Philippines’ National Recommendations Tracking Database or PH-NRTD in partnership with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“It sets a milestone in the State’s information-sharing and reporting of its accomplishments and best practices in the promotion, protection, and fulfillment of human rights,” Catura said.
The PH-NRTD, he said, is a showcase platform of the Philippines’ National Mechanism for Implementation, Reporting and Follow-Up or NMIRF being strengthened under the UN Joint Program for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Philippines.
The PHRCS is the Philippines’ advantage of having an NMIRF in place, he added.
Catura said the database will also serve as a platform to assess the human rights commitments made by Executive offices that are laid out in the 3rd Philippine Human Rights Plan for 2018-2022. The next PHRP is due to be out this year.
Subject matter experts during the workshop held in Clark, Pampanga on 8 to 10 February were Arnaud Chaltin and Artur Latsevych of the OHCHR’s South-East Asia Regional Office-Bangkok and Treaty Bodies Capacity-Building Program-Geneva Office, respectively.
Catura said the PH-NRTD shall be the government’s main repository of information provided by all Executive agencies concerned to address recommendations arising from constructive dialogues with UN human rights mechanisms, specifically the UN treaty bodies and the UN Human Rights Council through its Universal Periodic Review.
“But the database is not merely a data-gathering tool,” he said, “It also brings to concrete form our seriousness to actively engage and share with the UN and the world our best practices in complying with our human rights obligations by way of relevant laws, policies, programs, projects, and other initiatives.”
The Philippines earlier held constructive dialogues with the UN committee on the rights of the child and the UN human rights committee for the international covenant on civil and political rights in September and October last year, respectively.
Two constructive dialogues with the UN committee on migrant workers and the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination are scheduled this year.
The Philippines also went through its fourth cycle review under the UPR in November last year.
Mahamane Cisse-Gouro, director of the OHCHR’s Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, in a congratulatory video message to the workshop participants, commended “the presence of focal points from such a broad range of State institutions, (as) such cooperation is instrumental to the thorough implementation of recommendations by human rights mechanisms.”
Cisse-Gouro said with the Philippines as a pilot country, “we are very happy to collaborate closely with you and look forward to receiving your feedback on the use of the application.”
Attendees at the workshop were representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Justice, Office of the Court Administrator-Supreme Court, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Migrant Workers, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Education, Department of Health, National Economic and Development Authority, Philippine Commission on Women, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, National Council on Disability Affairs, Council for the Welfare of Children, Philippine Statistics Authority, Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council, Dangerous Drugs Board, Armed Forces of the Philippines-Center for Law and Armed Conflict, and the Philippine National Police-Human Rights Affairs Office.