HR and ASEAN Finals

A Paper on Human Rights Issues for ASEAN Discussions

Vicedo, Eldrei C.
Arts Management

To be submitted to Ms. Shyanne Juan-Monera

President Rodrigo Duterte took office on June 30, 2016, since he has initiated a "war on
drugs" that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Filipinos. Hundreds of youngsters under the
age of 18 have perished because of anti-drug raids in which they were either purposefully
targeted or inadvertently shot, which officials have dubbed "collateral damage." According to
nongovernmental groups or NGOs working for children's rights in the Philippines, 101 children
were slain between July 2016 and December 2018, both as targets and as spectators. In 2019 and
2020, there will be more child deaths publicized in the media. 1 The Commission on Human
Rights or CHR spokeswoman Jacqueline de Guia stated that the administration's cooperation "in
this process of pursuing truth and justice," is critical. As a result, she noted that to improve the
country's human rights status, the current administration must engage with human rights inquiry
and accountability mechanisms, particularly those of the UN (United Nations) system, with
genuine openness, transparency, and collaboration.2

During the date of January 31, 2020, the official data from the Philippine National Police
and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency placed the number of “drug war” killings at 5,601.
Almost every time, police claimed they killed a narcotics distributor or user during a raid
because the defendant fought back and resisted arrest. Many thousands more, according to the
national Commission on Human Rights and domestic human rights organizations, have been
killed by police, police agents, or unidentified assailants.3 Despite pledges from the Department
of Justice, the country's national human rights organization, which is tasked to probe state
crimes, has been kept out of the Duterte administration's much-touted drug war review panel.
The commission is also having difficulty conducting its own investigations due to the Philippine
National Police's lack of cooperation. State officials have yet to provide critical documents on
drug war killings with CHR. "CHR continues to look forward to more meaningful interactions in
demonstrating the rule of law in the country," which CHR Spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia also

1
Human Rights Watch.(2020).“Our Happy Family Is Gone” Impact of the “War on Drugs”
on Children in the Philippines Retrieve from https://hrw.org/report/2020/05/27/our-happy-
family-gone/impact-war-drugs-children-philippines
2
Gavilan, J. (June 15, 2021). CHR urges Duterte gov't to cooperate in Int' Criminal Court
probe. Retrieve from https://www.rappler.com/nation/chr-statement-international-criminal-court-
application-investigation-duterte-drug-war
3
Ibid at 1
spoke. He also said, "This includes having access to cases of said killings throughout the country
for our own impartial probe."4
Human Rights Watch was looking into adult homicides in which police had little regard for
the safety and wellbeing of children, often raiding homes in the middle of the night while the
entire family was sleeping. Children were present during many raids where their parents were
killed or carried away and shot. They believe that governments should ensure that human rights
are respected in drug use, possession, production, and distribution rules and procedures. We
reject the prohibition of drug usage for personal gain and drug possession for personal gain.
Thus, they demanded that the Philippine government halt its oppressive anti-drug campaign and
investigate and arrest those responsible for killings and other abuses of human rights.
Extrajudicial killings and other crimes occurring in the framework of the "war on drugs" since
June 2016 should be investigated by an independent international investigative mechanism
established by the UN Human Rights Council. This is where each family who have lost loved
ones because of unlawful killings by government officials and their agents should be reimbursed
swiftly and properly. Government agencies should address the urgent needs of children whose
breadwinner has been killed, particularly those who live in disadvantaged communities around
the Philippines, where the killings are most common, and guarantee that the government takes
steps to protect the children from abuse.5

II. The Online Course on Human Rights issues of Migration

Pursuant to Online Course, ILO's Piyasiri Wickramasekara looks at the trends and concerns
in Asian labor mobility, as well as the obstacles that countries and trade unions confront in
protecting migrant workers. It is an updated version of a document originally prepared for the
ILO Asia-Pacific Regional Symposium for Trade Union Organizations on Migrant Workers,
which was held in Kula Lumpur, Malaysia on December 6-8, 1999, and coordinated by the ILO
Bureau of Workers Activities. Problems with present language are addressed first, followed by
an examination of several prevalent myths about migrant workers. He emphasizes that receiving
countries profit greatly from migration, which is often underestimated. He examines recent
trends and peculiarities in Asian labor migration, as well as the most vulnerable populations of
migrant workers who require special care.6

4
Ibid at 2
5
Ibid at 4
6
Abelle, M. (August 2002). Asian Labour Migration: Issues and Challenges in an Era of
Globalization. Retrieve from https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-
bangkok/documents/publication/wcms_160632.pdf
 A fundamental divide exists between skilled labor (such as professionals, technicians, and
others) and unskilled labor in migration flows. This distinction is crucial because the two
categories engage differently with the labor market and are treated differently in host nations.
Given their qualifications and bargaining power, skilled workers have few problems working
abroad. Researcher states that most migrant worker protection issues concern unskilled laborers.
To describe the two divisions, some writers have used phrases like "high level" and "low level"
manpower These terms should be avoided at all costs, as they do not reflect the dignity of the
work involved. All employees, regardless of their skill levels, are equally valuable to the trade
union movement.7 They also stated that the migrant workers were defined as "the least protected"
in a groundbreaking research on the role of trade unions in their protection. The contemporary
status of migrant laborers in Asia is well described by this term. As an illustration, chart 3
summarizes the important issues, challenges, and policy alternatives relating to labor migration
in Asia. Protection of migrant workers has two sides for a labor-sending country: protection of
potential migrants prior to their departure from the home country, and protection of national
employees while they are abroad. National laws in the nation of origin are powerless to assist its
citizens working in other countries. In a labor-receiving country, the key concern is the level of
protection given to foreign workers, regardless of their status. There are two difficulties for
countries sending and receiving labor, such as Thailand: national worker protection while
overseas and foreign worker protection within the country. 8According to Article 7 of the
ICESCR, everyone has the right to just and beneficial working conditions, which include a safe
and healthy working environment. The impact of poor working circumstances on an individual's
health and well-being should not be ignored. Migrant workers are among the world's most
vulnerable employees, frequently subjected to exploitation, discrimination, and abuse, with little
access to remedies and recourse, and living in constant fear of deportation.9

Labour-sending In Asia, countries are frequently faced with a choice between "promotion"
and "protection." Faced with gloomy employment prospects at home and the economic benefits
of foreign money remittances, countries would prefer to see an increase in national worker
migration abroad. At the same time, they cannot turn a blind eye to the widespread violations of
basic human rights that their citizens face in other countries. This conundrum was brought to the
forefront for the Philippines when Flora Contamplacion, a Filipino domestic servant in
Singapore, was convicted of murder and hanged despite Philippine requests for clemency.
Republic Act 8042: The Migrant Workers and Abroad Filipinos Act of 1995 expressly specifies
that "the State does not promote overseas employment as a way of sustaining economic growth
and achieving national development." It further claimed that the government will only send
7
Ibid at 6
8
Ibid at 7
9
International Organization for Migration. (2013). International Migration, Health and
Human Rights. Retrieve from
https://www.ohchr.org/documents/issues/migration/who_iom_unohchrpublication.pdf
Filipino workers to nations where their rights as migrant workers are guaranteed. Even though
the 1995 Act reduced the reliance on overseas migration as a national policy, the number of
people migrating abroad has not decreased. The Act also emphasized the importance of focusing
on transferring talented workers abroad who can better protect themselves. Another policy
inconsistency was the government's desire to completely liberalize the labor emigration business
by 1999. This would mean that issues of protection would be mostly handled by the private
sector. 10

III. Forced labor and Human Trafficking are still prevalent in

Fish collected by victims of human trafficking working on Thai fishing boats were used to
feed shrimp cultivated and exported for sale in the freezers of the world's top four retailers,
according to the Guardian newspaper in June 2014. Thailand was degraded to Tier 3 in the US
Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report ten days later, the lowest
possible rating. The European Commission issued a "yellow card" warning to Thailand in April
2015, in part in response to multiple media exposés raising severe concerns about the killings,
beatings, and trafficking of migrant fishermen, many of whom were from Burma and Cambodia.
Sanctions from the European Union would follow a later "red card." The National Council for
Peace and Order (NCPO), Thailand's military junta, has changed the fishing industry's
monitoring, control, and management regimes in response. New interagency inspection
frameworks have been developed around the country, and fishing vessels are now required to be
inspected by teams of officials every time they leave and return to port. The laws have been
reinforced, and the consequences for violating fishermen's rights have been significantly
enhanced.11

Human Rights Watch spoke with 248 current and former fishermen on hiring methods,
salary, and payment systems, working hours, occupational health and safety, and a variety of
other topics. This group contained 95 people who had been identified as victims of human
trafficking by Thai officials or others. In 34 group and individual interviews with fishermen,
Human Rights Watch discovered 20 cases of forced labor, accounting for 90 of the 138
fishermen interviewed who were still working on boats at the time of the interviews. Even
10
Ibid at 7
11
Human Rights Watch.(2020). Hidden Chains Rights Abuses and Forced Labor in
Thailand’s Fishing Industry. Retrieve from https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/01/23/hidden-
chains/rights-abuses-and-forced-labor-thailands-fishing-industry
though the government has attempted high-profile attempts to clean up the business and project a
better image worldwide, forced labor in the Thai fishing industry has continued under a culture
of abuse. Despite minor changes, the situation has remained mostly unchanged since a large-
scale study of 496 fishermen in 2012 found that nearly one-fifth of them “reported working
against their will with the threat of a punishment that prevented them from leaving.”12

All employees and trafficking survivors whose identities appear in this report have been
given pseudonyms, and additional identifying information has been withheld or changed in some
cases to protect them from retaliation from their employers or local government officials. The
laborers depicted in the paper are neither victim of forced labor nor anyone who were
interviewed throughout the research. In exchange for their time and information, interviewees
were not paid. Human Rights Watch consented to conduct interviews with industry leaders and
government officials on the condition of anonymity, unless otherwise stated, to encourage open
and honest discussions about difficult matters. After cracking down on undocumented workers in
May-June 2014, detaining and deporting almost 3,000 migrants in just 19 days in power,
Thailand's new military government faced international condemnation, with tens of thousands of
migrant laborers trapped at the Thai-Cambodian border. Thailand's new military government
attracted widespread censure for cracking down on unauthorized workers in May-June 2014,
detaining and deporting almost 3,000 migrants in just 19 days in power. Tens of thousands of
migrant laborers were detained at the Thai-Cambodian border.13

IV. Conclusion

The Philippines' Drug War/Extrajudicial Killings, The Online Course on Human Rights
Issues of Migration, and Forced Labor and Human Trafficking are still rampant in Thailand's
fishing fleets are the topics I chose. The reason I included those three human rights issues is that
they are currently occurring, in addition to the necessity of citizens becoming more aware of the
situation as we approach a moment when history may repeat itself, and we must find a proper
solution to the problem at hand. Although I feel that solving difficulties in a difficult scenario
and finding chances for those who wish to migrate to a new country is difficult and demanding,
this does not indicate that there is no solution to the situation we are dealing with. It is a question
of how we'll handle the situation.

Reference:

12
Ibid at 11
13
Ibid at 12
 Human Rights Watch.(2020).“Our Happy Family Is Gone” Impact of the “War on Drugs”
on Children in the Philippines. Retrieve from https://hrw.org/report/2020/05/27/our-happy-
family-gone/impact-war-drugs-children-philippines

Gavilan, J. (June 15, 2021). CHR urges Duterte gov't to cooperate in Int' Criminal Court
probe. Retrieve from https://www.rappler.com/nation/chr-statement-international-criminal-court-
application-investigation-duterte-drug-war

Abelle, M. (August 2002). Asian Labour Migration: Issues and Challenges in an Era of
Globalization. Retrieve from https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-
bangkok/documents/publication/wcms_160632.pdf

International Organization for Migration. (2013). International Migration, Health and

Human Rights Watch.(2020). Hidden Chains Rights Abuses and Forced Labor in Thailand’s
Fishing Industry. Retrieve from https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/01/23/hidden-chains/rights-
abuses-and-forced-labor-thailands-fishing-industry