Summary record of the session after lunch on 21/10/03
FOR URGENT ACTION
| UNITED NATIONS | ||
| UNITED NATIONS CCPR | Distr. GENERALCCPR/C/SR.2140 24 October 2003 Original: ENGLISH |
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| UNITED NATIONS |
CCPR |
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Summary
record of the first part (public) of the 2140th meeting : Philippines. 24/10/2003.
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CCPR/C/SR.2140.
(Summary Record) |
Convention
Abbreviation: CCPR
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE
Seventy-ninth session
SUMMARY RECORD OF THE FIRST PART (PUBLIC)* OF THE 2140th MEETING
Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva,
on Tuesday, 21 October 2003, at 3 p.m.
Chairperson:
Mr. AMOR
CONTENTS
CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 40 OF THE
COVENANT (continued)
Second
periodic report of the Philippines
(continued)
The meeting was called to order at 3.10 p.m.
CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 40 OF THE
COVENANT (agenda item 6) (continued)
Second periodic report of the Philippines (continued)
(CCPR/C/PHL/2002/2; CCPR/C/79/L/PHL)
1. At the invitation of the Chairperson, the members of the delegation of the Philippines resumed their places at the Committee table.
2. The
CHAIRPERSON invited the delegation to complete its responses to questions 21
to 34 of the list of issues (CCPR/C/79/L/PHL) and to questions raised orally by
Committee members.
3. Ms.
GUTIERREZ (Philippines) said that her delegation had been unable to contact
the prosecutor handling the cases of the human rights defenders Eden Marcellana
and Eddie Gumanoy in order to clarify the status of the proceedings because of
the time difference between Geneva and Manila. She would pass on the information
to the Committee as soon as it became available.
4. The
Committee had asked about practical steps to ensure that the system of
warrantless arrest was not abused, especially during anti-insurgency and
anti-vagrancy drives. In the case of insurgents, the armed forces were bound by
rules of engagement for the conduct of combat operations. In that connection,
she drew attention to paragraph 518 of the report (CCPR/C/PHL/2002/2).
Anti-vagrancy measures were usually applied to minors and the practice was to
turn them over to their parents or to barangay (local council) captains, not on
account of vagrancy but on account of violations of the curfew imposed on minors
by local government units. Glue-sniffing street children were usually taken to
shelter homes or, if necessary, to drug rehabilitation centres.
5. The New
People's Army (NPA) had recruited minors and deployed them in combat operations.
Since 1997, 210 cases of child victims of recruitment by insurgents had been
documented: 133 had surrendered, 72 had been apprehended and 5 had been killed
in clashes. She cited, among others, the case of a 12-year-old captured during
an encounter in March 2000 who had been trained to handle and assemble an
Armalite rifle.
6. The
Department of National Defense had signed a memorandum of agreement with the
armed forces of the Philippines, the Department of the Interior and Local
Government, the Philippine National Police, the Department of Social Welfare and
Development, the Department of Health, the Commission on Human Rights, the
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and the National Program
for Unification and Development Council on the handling and treatment of
children involved in armed conflict. The memorandum specified the roles of the
different agencies, referring in that context to the Convention on the Rights of
the Child, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and
Republic Act 7610, which provided a legal mandate to protect and promote the
child's best interests and stated that children, as "zones of peace",
should not be recruited to become members of any military unit or any other
armed group or be allowed to take part in hostilities either directly or
indirectly. The memorandum also affirmed the State's responsibility to treat
children involved in armed groups who were rescued or who surrendered as victims
rather than offenders.
7. The
delegation needed more time to obtain the following data: on child soldiers and
the employment of children under 15 years of age; on legal aid and its
compliance with article 14 of the Covenant; on reports of the exploitation of
women workers in the free-trade zones, especially allegations that they were not
paid the minimum wage or compensated for overtime work; on compliance with the
provisions of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child
on the involvement of children in armed conflict; on cases in which the Covenant
had been directly invoked in the courts; on the proportion of men and women in
public service and the impact of the Philippine Development Plan for Women; on
the cases of Juan Pala and other journalists; and on affirmative action for
indigenous people. The delegation would provide answers later in the week to
questions about the reintroduction of the death penalty and about military units
or officers who had been disciplined or sanctioned in connection with enforced
or involuntary disappearances.
8. With
regard to the two bills regarding torture pending before Congress, the comments
of a member of the Committee would be taken into account to ensure that the best
possible definition of torture was adopted. A bill on the rights of homosexuals
was also pending before Congress.
9. Steps were
being taken to prevent abusive recourse to warrantless arrests during
counter-insurgency operations. Captured insurgents were detained by the armed
forces for 36 hours for tactical interrogation. The crime of rebellion was a
serious offence warranting such a measure. After that period, they were turned
over to the police and the courts for the preferment of appropriate charges.
Some insurgents preferred to remain in military custody for their own safety. In
such cases, they were asked to execute a waiver.
10. With
regard to the role of the prosecution in the investigation of cases, she said
that the prosecutor, on receiving a complaint, filed an information with the
court when the evidence so warranted. In the case of warrantless arrests,
inquiries were immediately conducted to ensure that the proper information was
filed in court. Prolonged detention could entail prosecution of an officer under
the Revised Penal Code.
11. The
Public Attorney's Office and the National Prosecution Service were agencies
of the
Department of Justice. Neither prosecutors nor public defenders received high
salaries but
most remained in office out of dedication to the administration of justice. They
were also
attracted by the prospect of promotion and perhaps eventually entering the
judicial branch.
12. Sir
Nigel RODLEY said that the definition of torture in a bill before Congress
read out by the delegation at the previous meeting corresponded to some extent
to the definition contained in article 1 of the Convention against Torture but
did not have the full purposive element of that definition. He wondered whether
the delegation could explain why not.
13. The
Committee had been informed by Amnesty International that the Philippine
vagrancy legislation was sometimes used as a pretext for arbitrary arrest and
detention. In particular, women sex workers were said to be routinely arrested
by plain-clothes police officers driving private vehicles who failed to produce
proper identification. They reportedly extorted money from the women or
subjected them to sexual violence. Detained women and children were also
allegedly subjected to sexual assault or promised release in return for sexual
favours.
14. Ms.
GUTIERREZ (Philippines) undertook to make representations to Philippine
lawmakers to ensure that the definition of torture adopted by Congress was that
contained in the Convention against Torture.
15. Any
complaints from victims of extortion or other illegal acts by police officers
should be brought to the attention of the Department of Justice; the officers
concerned would be liable to prosecution under the Revised Penal Code. The
National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women could assist in documenting
the cases.
16. The
CHAIRPERSON welcomed the wide range of information provided by the State
party in its voluminous report. While the Committee's concluding observations
would take account of the additional written material to be provided later that
week, he pointed out that not all Committee members were proficient in the
language in which the material would be provided. With regard to the late
submission of the report, he urged the State party to adhere in future to the
scheduled submission dates in its own interest and in that of the Committee. The
delegation's answers to the list of issues had been short on practical detail.
Information on legislation and policy was certainly useful but the Committee
also needed to know about specific cases and trends so that it could assess the
day-to-day human rights situation.
17. It was
unclear whether the Covenant, which seemed to have primacy over legislation but
not over the Constitution, could be invoked before the courts and effectively
applied. The related decision by the Philippine Supreme Court and statements by
senators were not reassuring in that regard.
18. The
Committee was concerned about certain provisions of the bill on terrorism,
especially the list of acts to be included in the definition, which could hardly
be justified by reference to Security Council resolution 1373 (2001). What scope
was left for human rights if the fight against terrorism could be invoked to
justify all kinds of excesses, including assaults on the environment?
19. He agreed
with Sir Nigel Rodley that the proposed definition of torture fell short of that
contained in article 1 of the Convention against Torture, which the State party
had ratified.
20. Questions
about the indigenous peoples of the Philippines remained unanswered, and there
were still many concerns regarding the situation of children, particularly
children in armed conflict. As to the children on death row, whose age appeared
to be unknown, it was difficult to understand how judgement could have been
passed until it was clear they were not minors; it was up to the State party to
establish their status first. With regard to deportations, the State party
naturally had a sovereign right to deport foreigners who posed a risk to State
security, but there must be a minimum of conditions, and those should be defined
in the context of the Covenant.
21. Given the
goodwill shown by the delegation during the dialogue, the Committee expected
that it would receive full responses to its remaining questions and concerns.
22. Ms.
GUTIERREZ (Philippines) thanked the Committee for the opportunity to present
and discuss her country's second periodic report.
The public part of the meeting rose at 3.55 p.m.
©1996-2001
Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Geneva,
Switzerland
