The House of Representatives passed House Bill No. 10576, known as the Human Rights Defenders Act, on its third and final reading on January 17, 2022. The proposed legislation was passed by 200 members of the House, with no abstentions or votes against it.
The House had previously accepted the Bill in 2019, but the Senate had failed to adopt its counterpart bill, and the law had not been enacted. We applaud the increasing support for the bill observed during the latest House session, which came from 183 members of the House at the time.
This new move is a huge step toward the recognition and protection of human rights advocates in one of the most hazardous nations for campaigners. ‘Human rights defenders have been killed, arrested, detained, red-tagged, and threatened for so long – particularly in the past six years under President Rodrigo Duterte’s murderous regime – that a law to criminalize these acts and recognize the State’s duty to protect defenders is long overdue,’ said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.
The Bill was created in collaboration with civil society and is based on the Model Law for Recognizing and Protecting Human Rights Defenders. The reconciliation of the Senate and House Bills will eventually become law in the Philippines. It is vital that the final law arising from the reconciliation process provides the most stringent legal protections for human rights defenders.
‘The passage of the Anti-Terrorism Law last year, which complemented the Duterte Administration’s arsenal of tools, facilitating its ability to label, detain, and eliminate government critics, and the prevailing climate of impunity and attacks against defenders, including the redtagging of the authors of the House Bill,’ said ISHR’s Tess McEvoy.
We join national and international civil society, as well as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, in calling for the enactment of the Human Rights Defenders Law. It is critical to establish domestic standards and a legal framework that accommodate the unique conditions of human rights advocates.
All eyes are now on the Senate to move quickly on the similar bill, Senate Bill 179, which has been waiting with the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights since Senator De Lima introduced it in February 2018.
WCHR applauds the passing of a bill in the House of Representatives aimed at preventing human rights breaches and abuses against human rights activists. We now urge the Senate to vote on the bill before it.