•
National Human Rights Institutions Blended Learning Workshop
The workshop, titled “Engaging with Inter-Governmental Mechanisms (IGM) on the Right to a
Healthy Environment and Climate Change,” was a three-day workshop that served as an
opportunity for NHRI participants to consolidate and build on what they had learned during the
online course. Following the introductory dialogue with their IGM representatives, NHRI
participants were encouraged to identify opportunities and approaches to strengthen reciprocal
engagements on the right to a healthy environment and protection against climate change. NHRI
participants applied their knowledge and understanding with a view to submitting to workshop
their proposals for the IGM Project’s small grants program. It was also an opportunity for the
participants to connect and network with one another.
4. Advocacy on Older Persons
The CHR has been actively promoting the culture of respect for
older people with the aim to show consideration for their dignity
and worth, wellbeing, and their need for an equal and good-quality
life. This advocacy attaches itself to the principle of inclusivity and
non-discrimination and signifies a strong show of support for a
kind of human rights that is all-embracing. This welcomes
particularly the sectors of older people and is geared at raising
awareness and effectuating improvement in attitudes, practices,
policies and actions toward the more advance-aged persons.
•
Elderly Filipino Week: Forum on the Right to Work of Older Persons
The CHR set the theme of the 2022 Elderly Filipino Week celebration as “Promoting Support For
The Resilience Of Older Persons In Nation-Building.” Conforming with this theme, the CHR
emphasized the need to understand the value of the older persons’ contribution to nation-building
and how improving their enjoyment of their right to work would eventually redound to more
progress in society. As a springboard to generate public awareness, the NCSC and the CHR held
a forum on the right to work of older persons simultaneously with the 2022 Elderly Filipino Week
celebration.
•
Consultation for 13th Session of the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on
Ageing
The CHR consulted the relevant stakeholders to gather information on the state of human rights
of older Filipinos in the country and to bring together insights on what human rights mean in the
context of older age. Brought together were NGOs working specifically on providing support for
the older persons’ human rights and for human rights in general, members of the older persons
sector themselves, and representatives from the academe.
5. Advocacy on Indigenous People
The IP in the country have been declining in number through the
years due to many factors including the systematic cycle of
conflict, abuse and neglect. Under this circumstance, the exact
size of the indigenous population in the country is currently not
determined. Notwithstanding, the Philippines has accepted and
espoused the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
and upholds a domestic law called Republic Act 8371 known as the
Indigenous People’s Rights Acts (IPRA) that was enacted in 1997.
CHR believes that the government should implement the law(s)
more effectively in order to protect and prevent the country’s
indigenous peoples from being downplayed, undervalued and
thus, discriminated. The IP continue to live isolated in underdeveloped far-flung communities, and are thus restricted from accessing basic social services.
Owing further to geographical seclusion, the IP are unable to engage in opportunities for
meaningful activities such as in the spheres of economics, education, and politics. To make
headway towards repairing the cracks between policy and practice, training and education
activities were conducted. Focusing on the IP as a priority issue is a means to build awareness on
26