Editor's note: This article is excerpted from a longer report at the World Council of Churches Press Center.
Human rights violations by the government of President Roderigo Duterte are coming under scrutiny at the Human Rights Council after submissions made by church-backed civil society groups. He spoke at the press briefing as the groups were set to participate in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Philippines at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland on May 8, 2017.
The UPR is a mechanism of the Human Rights Council which was established by UN General Assembly resolution in 2006. It periodically examines the human rights performance of all 193 UN Member States and is intended to complement, not duplicate, the work of other human rights mechanisms, including the human rights treaty bodies.
Numerous church groups are members of the UPR Watch including the National Council of Churches of the Philippines (NCCP) in which the United Methodist Church participates, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP), Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) and the Association of Major Women Religious Superiors of the Philippines.
In its 2017 review, 11 states called for the establishment of protection mechanisms for "human rights defenders" organizations and recommended that the Philippines “should provide a safe and enabling environment for the work of human rights defenders.”
Deputy Secretary General Jigs Clamor of the group Karapatan also listed the key social indicators in the Philippines explaining it has one of the worst unemployment rates in Asia and a minimum wage of 491 pesos a day (around 10 Swiss francs or US$10) at the Ecumenical Centre meeting.
But, he pointed out, individuals require more than 1,000 pesos a day to attain a decent standard of living and 66 million Filipinos struggle on 125 pesos - just US$3 – a day, against a backdrop of an economy in which prices are increasing.
These have triggered street protests and have had a marked impact on human rights, the police response having martial-law style human rights violations.
Between July 2016 and January 2017, he said there were 23 extra- judicial killings with 387 political prisoners in the country, 283 of whom were held under the previous administration of President Aquino.
Since the beginning of 2012, there have been 249 extra judicial killing victims, 244 victims of torture, 17 victims of enforced disappearances and 103,337 forced evacuations due to military operations.
Attorney Ephraim Cortez the representative of the National Union of People’s Lawyers told the UPR that following the start of killings in 2001, one activist has been killed each day.
For more information on human rights abuses in the Philippines: