Addressing Human Rights Issues on the Ground

I learned about a new mechanism that ensures substantial and sustained involvement of civil society in addressing human rights issues in our country. In a Training Conference on Human Rights of Women in Southeast Asia sponsored by the Swedish International Development Agency, a representative from the United Nations Human Rights Council introduced this mechanism called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

The UPR is an intergovernmental process that functions like a peer review mechanism that caters to the human rights situation on the ground. It provides an advocacy opportunity for civil society where non-government organizations are formally and officially recognized as source of information. What more, it fully integrates a gender perspective in the promotion of human rights.

The Philippines has taken part in the very first UPR in June 2008 and will be subject to another round of review in 2012. Civil society can observe the UPR, lobby governments participating in the review of human rights in the Philippines, and carry out advocacy activities before, during and in follow up of the UPR in our country. The UPR provides a unique opportunity to advocate for improvements in a reviewed country, given the international spotlight put on it.

The UPR is an opportunity to pressure Philippine government to take concrete actions prior to the review or as a consequence of the review. It is a new experience for governments for it exposes their human rights records to their peers. Because it encourages governments to carry out national consultations to elaborate their report, the UPR also provides a chance to show the level of transparency in governance and participation of civil society in the decision-making process.  Civil society should remind the government while preparing the review that the UPR should essentially be a national process and not a foreign relations exercise in Geneva.

The UPR is divided into several phases -- raising awareness, preparing written submissions, lobbying ahead of the review, final outcome of the UPR, and follow-up to UPR. Civil society should be informed ahead of the process. Written submissions should reflect how the government, the UN specialized bodies and NGOs domestically and internationally see the human rights situation in the Philippines.