19 April 2023, 15.00hrs (Geneva Time)/21.00hrs (PST)

To the Committee Members of the Treaty Body and colleagues from the Philippine Delegation:

Assalamualaikum and good afternoon! I am Commissioner Faydah Maniri Dumarpa, focal commissioner for the sector of indigenous peoples and cultural communities and head of the NHRI delegation.

On behalf of the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP), I would like to express our sincere gratitude for giving us the opportunity to engage with you concerning the Philippines’ compliance with its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) during this 109th session of the Committee.

First, allow me to commend the Philippine Delegation and the national government for their impressive achievement over the years. The Commission lauds the tangible progress that has been attained, and we recognize with much appreciation the efforts undertaken by the Philippine government amid the Covid-19 pandemic- laws, policies, and programs are in place, and focal government agencies have been identified. The Commission is convinced that much has already been done.

However, indigenous peoples and cultural communities still experience challenges in fully enjoying their civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. The Commission notes perennial issues arising from the performance of the obligations of the duty bearers, both state and non-state, under the ICERD.

Hence, the Commission would like to stress the need on the following:

1. On the deficiency in gathering and dis-aggregating data on indigenous women, indigenous youth and children, internally displaced indigenous peoples, and indigenous elderly, thus, limiting the basis of the government and other duty bearers for planning and programming to address their issues and concerns appropriately.
   
   To strengthen the system on data collection of indigenous peoples and generate statistics including indigenous women, children, youth, and older persons, to ensure that the programs are targeted and not fragmented;
   
2. On the creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O. No. 70), the so-called “red-tagging” resulted in increased threats and harassment against human rights defenders, and civil society organizations, including members of indigenous peoples’ communities.
   
   To revisit the mandate of the NTF-ELCAC and to take active steps to ensure that its mechanism is not improperly used to harass, threaten, or attack civil society organizations, human rights defenders, journalists, minority groups, labor activists, indigenous peoples, dissenters, and members of the political
   opposition;
   
3. On the lack of compliance of the free prior and informed consent (FPIC) of both state and non-state duty bearers in implementing projects continuously raised by indigenous peoples and cultural communities over their ancestral domains, especially in natural resource extraction businesses, power generation projects, and tourism projects.
   
   To uphold the rights of IPs to be informed and consulted before any development project or activity is implemented in their ancestral domains.

Finally, to strengthen the Commission’s mandate in line with the Paris Principles as well as to enhance our organizational, functional, and fiscal structures, we reiterate our appeal for the national government to support and to intensify its legislative advocacy for the passage of the CHR Charter Bill.

We at the Commission will continue to be a partner in advancing human rights in the Philippines. We recognize that continued collaboration and participation in monitoring the situation of indigenous peoples and cultural communities, including other vulnerable, disadvantaged, and marginalized sectors, will strengthen and further human rights promotion, prevention, and protection in the Philippines and of all Filipinos.

The CHRP, as the independent national human rights institution (NHRI) of the Philippines, will continue to perform its constitutional duty in line with the Paris Principles to ensure that individual and collective rights are respected, protected, and fulfilled.

Thank you; Maraming salamat po.