RP gets seat on UN Human Rights Council

First posted 09:29am (Mla time) May 10, 2006, Philippine Daily Inquirer
By Veronica Uy

THE Philippines on Tuesday obtained a seat on the new, 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council, the Philippine Mission to the United Nations said in a statement to media organizations.

"Our election is a telling testimonial from member states of United Nations and the international community on human rights in the Philippines," said Permanent Representative to the UN Lauro Baja Jr. after the Philippines received 136 of the 191 votes from UN member states or 40 more than the absolute majority of 96 votes required to secure a seat in the UN's top human rights body.

"We are gratified to note that the goodwill and respect the Philippines gained through our participation in the Security Council live on," he added.

Baja said the election of the Philippines speaks well of the country's human rights record because the UN General Assembly resolution establishing the council requires member states to consider the candidate-countries' contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights, and their voluntary pledges and commitments when casting their ballots.

He said member states do not need to fill all the seats of the Council if candidates do not demonstrate the necessary commitment to protect and promote human rights.

Baja said this election represents the country's third international recognition.

"Our election rounds our role in the three pillars of the United Nations in the 21st century," Baja said. "On security, we attained our niche through our participation in the Security Council and our initiative on interfaith cooperation for peace; on development, through our initiatives on debt conversion into Millennium Development Goals projects and on migration; and on human rights and rule of law, through this election and our forthcoming participation in the Council."

The Philippines announced its candidacy two weeks after the adoption of the resolution establishing the Geneva-based Council when other missions had a head start in their campaigns.

According to the ambassador, 65 countries made a bid for the 47 available seats in the Geneva-based body.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been under extreme political pressure on alleged election fraud and has resorted to what many rights groups believe were anti-human rights actions which the Supreme Court recently struck down.

Among the orders struck down were portions of Executive Order 464, which stopped officials from executive department from participating in legislative inquiries without express permission from the President; portions of Presidential Proclamation 1017, which declared a state of national emergency and resulted in the arrests of several people, including legislators, and a raid on the newspaper Tribune; and the calibrated preemptive response policy, which tightened restrictions on demonstrations.

In its campaign, the Philippine Mission stressed that the Philippines, as a founding member of the United Nations, was instrumental in the inclusion of "self-determination" and "independence" into the UN Charter, which helped countries under colonial rule to be independent and achieve membership in the world body.

The Philippines had been a member of the defunct Commission on Human Rights for 41 years. The Philippines last sat in the Commission in 2000.

According to Baja, the Philippine Mission also emphasized that the Philippines is party to all of the seven core international rights instruments and leads the advocacy for the establishment of a human rights regional mechanism in Southeast Asia.