WITH the restoration of the death penalty having high hopes due to election of several bets of President Duterte in the upper and lower chambers, the Commission in Human Rights (CHR) noted that it is set to engage in a conversion aimed at educating the lawmakers.

CHR commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit, in a statement, said they are ready to “engage the House of Representatives in a frank and factual conversation about the death penalty.”

“We are ready to present the ineffectiveness of the death penalty and offer viable programs that result in crime prevention and lowering crime incidence. These include police visibility or increasing police to population ratios and community vigilance. We fully support these initiatives that do not diminish our principles to uphold the right to life,” she said.

As an agency mandated to protect human rights, Gomez-Dumpit said CHR must ensure that their legal obligations as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Second Optional Protocol aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty are respected and fulfilled.

“As a state party to these human rights treaties, we have perpetually committed not to impose nor reintroduce capital punishment,” she explained.

Gomez-Dumpit, meanwhile, clarified that they are not against persecuting convicted criminals and lawless elements but apprehension must still abide with the rights of every human being.

“The Commission does not want crime to go unpunished. However, the apprehension, prosecution, conviction and punishment of those who have committed wrong doings must be in accordance with human rights standards and principles,” she said.