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Sunday, April 13, 2008
RP vows to follow UN protocol v. human rights abuses (7:24 p.m.)
MANILA -- The Philippine government said it will soon accede to the United Nations (UN) Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita gave the assurance while the Philippines was undergoing the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of its human rights performance before the UN Human Rights Council on April 11 in Geneva, Switzerland.
"The ball has been set rolling. It was one of our last decisions at the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC) before we left for Geneva to recommend this to the President (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo)," Ermita told the UN body.
Ermita, who also chairs the PHRC, led a delegation of 11 line agencies for the UPR session. PHRC executive director Cecilia Quisumbing said the delegation totals 19 persons.
The Philippine delegation has told the UN rights body about the PHRC's consensus to recommend the country's accession to the treaty in response to questions from South Korea, the United Kingdom, Slovenia and Pakistan.
The Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (Opcat) seeks to “establish a system of regular visits undertaken by independent international and national bodies to places where people are deprived of their liberty, in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
It requires state parties to establish independent National Prevention Mechanisms to investigate reported incidents of torture and put measures to prevent it. (JMR/Sunnex) |
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