Human rights group emphasized the importance UN Special Rapporteur’s visit, adding that this is the chance to show the international community that all is not well in the Philippines, and how current government policies, laws and programs have led to killings and various forms of human rights violations.
By ALYSSA MAE CLARIN
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — Human rights defenders, journalists, artists, academics, unionists and other groups recently organized a press conference in preparation for the official visit of United Nations’ (UN) Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion Irene Khan to the Philippines next week.
She is expected to be in the country from January 23 to February 2, 2024, and will be visiting key areas to investigate how freedom of expression is challenged and violated in the country.
Who is Irene Khan and what does her visit mean?
Khan is the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the rights to freedom of opinion and expression since August 2020. She is the first woman to ever hold this position since its establishment in 1993.
As the former secretary-general of Amnesty International, she is an internationally recognized advocate for human rights, gender equality and social justice. As the first woman to head Amnesty International, she had launched its first global campaign to stop violence against women and girls.
Aside from that, she also acted as consulting editor of The Daily Star in Bangladesh from 2019 to 2011, covering human rights, democracy and gender issues.
As the Special Rapporteur, a title given to independent human rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, she has the mandate to monitor, advise and publicly report on human rights situations in specific countries and on human rights violations worldwide.
Some of the main functions of a special rapporteur include acting on cases of reported violations, contributing to the development of human rights standards, engaging in advocacy and helping raise public awareness on these issues, and official country visits.
During her official visit to the Philippines next week, Khan is expected to meet with local authorities, members of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), non-government organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations (CSOs) and victims of human rights violations.
After these meetings she is expected to assess the general human rights situation in the country and evaluate the specific institutional, legal, judicial, administrative and de facto situation under her mandate.
Her whole assessment will be included in a mission report that she will submit to the Human Rights Council in June 2025.
The official visit of Khan is an opportunity to put forward the continuing attacks on press freedom and free expression, as well as an opportunity to push the Philippine government to comply with its international obligations.
She is the next independent UN expert to visit the Philippines after UN Special Rapporteur on climate change and human rights Ian Fry last November 2023.
#FightToExpress Campaign
At least thirty-six national, regional and international organizations have submitted reports on the state of freedom of expression and opinion in the Philippines.
In these reports, they narrated how media outfits continue to be threatened with all sorts of press freedom violations, ranging from media killings to website blockings.
Karapatan Secretary-General Cristina Palabay emphasized the importance of this visit, adding that this is the chance to show the international community that all is not well in the Philippines, and how current government policies, laws and programs have led to killings and various forms of human rights violations.
“But in all of these violations, the people’s right to information is the one that is severely violated,” Palabay said.
National Union of Journalists of the Philippines NCR Chapter (NUJP-NCR) secretary-general Paul Soriano highlighted that despite the slight improvement in the rankings of the World Press Freedom Index, journalists continue to experience different forms of attacks under Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ‘s administration.
“Just because we don’t get verbally cursed, does not mean the attacks have stopped,” said Soriano, adding that NUJP has currently recorded 109 cases of attacks against free press; at least 47 percent higher compared to the same period during the previous Rodrigo Duterte administration.
“We reiterate that inaction does not necessarily mean peace. Inaction is not necessarily improvement,” he added. (RTS) 
