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    Human Rights Essay

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    czarina
    The document is an essay that analyzes the state of human rights in the Philippines. It discusses several issues: 1) While the Philippines constitution protects basic rights, violations still exist, such as discrimination against indigenous peoples in education. Curriculums are developed without their input and do not address their culture. 2) Many children work in hazardous conditions or are trafficked, despite laws against child labor. The government has failed to protect vulnerable children from exploitation. 3) While some improvements have been made, such as reduced killings under the Aquino administration, other problems persist or have worsened, like poor housing and lack of access to education. More legislation and enforcement is still needed to fulfill human rights obligations

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    Human Rights Essay

    Uploaded by

    czarina
    13K views5 pages
    The document is an essay that analyzes the state of human rights in the Philippines. It discusses several issues: 1) While the Philippines constitution protects basic rights, violations still exist, such as discrimination against indigenous peoples in education. Curriculums are developed without their input and do not address their culture. 2) Many children work in hazardous conditions or are trafficked, despite laws against child labor. The government has failed to protect vulnerable children from exploitation. 3) While some improvements have been made, such as reduced killings under the Aquino administration, other problems persist or have worsened, like poor housing and lack of access to education. More legislation and enforcement is still needed to fulfill human rights obligations

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    an essay on the present status of human rights in the philippines

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    The document is an essay that analyzes the state of human rights in the Philippines. It discusses several issues: 1) While the Philippines constitution protects basic rights, violations still exist, such as discrimination against indigenous peoples in education. Curriculums are developed without their input and do not address their culture. 2) Many children work in hazardous conditions or are trafficked, despite laws against child labor. The government has failed to protect vulnerable children from exploitation. 3) While some improvements have been made, such as reduced killings under the Aquino administration, other problems persist or have worsened, like poor housing and lack of access to education. More legislation and enforcement is still needed to fulfill human rights obligations

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    13K views5 pages

    Human Rights Essay

    Uploaded by

    czarina
    The document is an essay that analyzes the state of human rights in the Philippines. It discusses several issues: 1) While the Philippines constitution protects basic rights, violations still exist, such as discrimination against indigenous peoples in education. Curriculums are developed without their input and do not address their culture. 2) Many children work in hazardous conditions or are trafficked, despite laws against child labor. The government has failed to protect vulnerable children from exploitation. 3) While some improvements have been made, such as reduced killings under the Aquino administration, other problems persist or have worsened, like poor housing and lack of access to education. More legislation and enforcement is still needed to fulfill human rights obligations

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    It is a known fact that Philippines is a democratic country; people can

    be as free as they want so long as their exercise of freedom is within the


    bounds of the law. Here, your basic human rights are respected and
    protected. Sounds enticing right? But dont fall in love with this idea right
    away. The surface may be pleasing to the eyes but once you dig deeper,
    surely youll discover the ugliness it tries to conceive from us. It would not
    take you that long to turn your nose away from the stink this government
    hides.
    According to an online article by Human Rights Watch, human rights
    violations in the country have declined under the Aquino administration. In
    all fairness to the presidency of His Excellency, extra judicial killings,
    enforced disappearances and torture are comparatively lower than the
    previous administration. But still, they continue to exist. The Aquino
    administration has failed to keep its promise of a more concrete action plan
    against human rights violations in the country. Committees have been
    formed before, just like the Special Task Force Against Extra Judicial Killings
    and Enforced Disappearances but according to the same article it has failed
    to deliver results. This move was more of a PR strategy from the
    government. Sounded like it was just ornamental, but not functional. But one
    has to look beyond these human rights issues, because there are more to
    these, not just the killings and the disappearances.
    According to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights,
    state participants, (that includes the Philippines) have three obligations.
    a. Obligation to Respect
    b. Obligation to Protect
    c. Obligation to Fulfill
    Let us assess each of these areas accordingly.
    The diversity and plurality of the Philippines must be
    safeguarded through respect and tolerance. The State must respect
    and promote harmony and understanding between and among
    individuals, communities and peoples. It must uphold nondiscrimination among peoples regardless of age, race, ethnicity,
    religion, gender, physical ability, sexual orientation, social beliefs and
    political convictions. Cultural traditions and institutionalized power
    shall not serve as justification for any form of violence, abuse, neglect,
    or deprivation of human and peoples rights.
    This is one of the provisions written on the Human and Peoples Rights
    Declaration of the Philippines. Its very idealistic. Words were beautifully

    crafted to please whoever is reading it. But I believe that these are just
    purely written ideas that never get to be realized.
    It was clearly provided that there should be non-discrimination among people
    regardless of ethnicity. But what is hugely apparent is that IPs are still
    discriminated in many things, one of them is discrimination in education. In
    the country, there are 2.5 million IP children. They live mostly in remote
    areas where public schools offer limited services. Since they are IP children it
    is very important that while they get civilized through formal education, they
    should never forget their ethnic roots. This is where the problem stems. The
    curriculum offered in these schools cannot address the special needs of
    these IPs which could fit their own culture. IPs are also at risk of dropping out
    of school because of poverty or because of the distance they have to travel
    just to get in school. The fact that the government seem to not care about
    this problem, for me, is discrimination already. Yes, there are measures taken
    by DepEd to address this issue but it seem inadequate. Even if DepEd has
    already devised a special curriculum for the IPs, when it comes to the
    formulation of the curriculum, they are seldom invited to participate in the
    discussion. Is this respect? Is this respect for their basic human right to have
    a voice on something that greatly concerns them? I dont think so. The
    government should be considerate also of their right to education. Shutting
    them out from the discussions of curriculum development is unfair. In order
    that IP education could progress, it would be helpful that there should be
    dialogues between the IP and DepEd on curriculum development so that both
    parties could land on same ground when it comes to education. Letting them
    voice out what they really want is showing that their human rights is
    respected. IPs are the living testaments of how culturally rich we are as a
    country. Preservation of culture and heritage should be incorporated in the
    specialized IP education so that the chain of our rich cultural legacy will
    never be broken. This is how we show respect to the rights of the IPs who are
    very much Filipino citizens of this country just like us.
    In an article written by Mong Palatino in The Diplomat for its February
    2015 issue, he said that there are about 5.5 million working children in the
    country and 2.9 million of them are working in hazardous industries like
    mines and plantations. Most of these children have stopped school. They
    usually work for 10 hours even up to 16 sometimes if the situation demands
    it. The Philippines is faced with the serious problem of child trafficking which
    is committed for the purpose of labor, usually, in factories and as domestic
    workers; for sexual exploitation and for illegal activities such as begging,
    drug trading and illegal adoption. Children of poor families in the rural areas
    are usually the target for child trafficking. Part of what the Constitution

    demands to be protected are the children. The very fact that they are
    children makes them vulnerable to so many things which is why they would
    really need protecting. What has the government done to protect them from
    being abused by these business owners who use their fragile bodies for
    heavy labor? From these pedophiles who use their tender bodies for sexual
    gratification?
    There have been legislations passed to address this problem. RA 7610 is a
    law that prohibits all forms of child labor. It gives protection to children
    against exploitation and abuses. But is it really effective? Has it achieved its
    goal to actually protect the Filipino children? If we are to answer in the
    affirmative then the author of the above cited article might be saying
    something which isnt true. If the plan of the government to combat child
    abuse is really working in full swing, then why are all these data on child
    abuse keep coming up? In my own belief, the government has failed to fulfill
    its obligation to protect. We cannot deny the fact that child abuse is still
    prevailing in the country. We have the laws but it doesnt have the teeth.
    Child abusers never get prosecuted and if ever they do, they easily get away
    with it. This is the sad reality.
    The present government may say they have fulfilled their obligations in
    ensuring that every citizen gets to enjoy basic human rights but I think
    otherwise. If their only claim is that they have reduced incidence of extra
    judicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture then they are
    completely blind or are intentionally trying to shut their eyes to the whole
    reality. The scope of human rights is beyond that. Housing conditions of the
    less fortunate are worse than ever. A lot of children are deprived of education
    because of poverty. There are incidences of harassment of women in the
    workplace. Pnoy during his first sona has promised a lot of improvements to
    human rights. But are there actual legislations that tend to cater to these
    problems? And if there are, are they really effective? In all fairness, this
    administration is better compared to its predecessor. But sometimes, he is
    often led to a wrong direction. Instead of fulfilling the promises he made, he
    got busy executing his vindictive plans and forgot that this country has more
    serious problems that needs most of his attention. The government turns the
    peoples attention away from these other human rights violation by simply
    showing how much he condemned his predecessor instead of forming orders
    that may eradicate or if not at least reduce said violations. Hes very proud in
    sharing to everyone all his achievements in terms of economic development
    but never had the guts to admit that problems concerning human rights still
    exist. As long as these problems continue to plague our country, I will forever
    have the opinion that the status of human rights in the Philippines will need

    more improvement. There is so much more to fulfill, so many more to be


    done in order that we may achieve improved conditions of human rights in
    the country. Every day is a struggle, every day is a battle. The government is
    the commander in chief, and we are soldiers ready to fight. If the
    government never makes the move, if it doesnt create smart battle
    strategies, then we will definitely loose the war against human rights
    violations.

    Human Rights in the Philippines: Seeing Beyond the Surface

    An Essay on Human Rights Conditions


    In the Philippines

    Submitted by:
    Czarina Mae Valencia
    2B

    Submitted to:
    Atty. Jonie Dabuco
    Professor, Human Rights Law

    In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements


    In Human Rights Law

    October 19, 2015

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