17. The Commission calls for the creation of an Inter-Agency Monitoring Group on
the Human Rights Situation of Indigenous Peoples, including those of the Lumad,
to facilitate immediate responses to issues concerning indigenous peoples’ rights,
including causes of conflict related to indigenous people ancestral domains, such as
mineral extraction, logging and agro-industrial businesses. The participation of civil
society organizations in this mechanism is highly encouraged.
18. Even as it recognizes the nobility in fighting for the rights of indigenous peoples, the
Commission urges the organizers behind the Haran encampment to seriously examine
their policies and methods, especially those that have led to transgressions of Lumad
rights. The Commission views with serious concern the case of Lito Lundia and
other members of his tribe, lured under false pretenses to Haran, and prevented from
returning to their ancestral homes, despite already having expressed their strong desire
or demand to be allowed to leave. Also, the humanitarian conditions that the indigenous
peoples were made to endure inside the compound by the managers thereof, when help
and facilities were offered to alleviate their situation, must give pause to the handlers of
Haran to review their policies, system, and procedures, among others.
19. The Commission calls on all parties – state and non-state – to genuinely respect the
rights of indigenous peoples to be consulted and to participate in all levels and on
all matters affecting their civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. This
includes their inherent right to self-governance and self-determination, as well as
rights over their ancestral domains, including all ancillary rights attaching thereto.
20. The Commission calls on both the government and the New People’s Army to refrain
from coercion, intimidation, or deception and other acts that cause the Lumad to
abandon or evacuate from their ancestral domains. Furthermore, the Commission
urges all parties from supplanting – by force, intimidation, or deception – the
indigenous peoples’ decision to leave or return to their ancestral domains.
21. The Commission calls on all parties to especially ensure that indigenous women and
children enjoy the full protection and guarantees against all forms of violence.
22. The Commission calls on the government and the Communist Party of the
Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front to refrain from recruiting
indigenous peoples, especially children, for activities relating to the armed conflict. It
reminds both parties that, under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for
Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, they have committed to respect
customary and conventional International Human Rights Law and International
Humanitarian Law.
23. The Commission recommends that the government and the Communist Party of the
Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front resume peace talks in
good faith towards accountability, healing, and achieving peace for the country.
24. If peace talks at the national level cannot be immediately resumed, the government
should hold peace dialogues at the local level, ensuring representation of indigenous
peoples and respect for their rights.
25. Although some individual members of indigenous cultural communities may
have committed themselves to partisan causes, the Lumad must be encouraged to
dialogue and resolve conflict among themselves, using their own indigenous cultural
mechanisms for building peace, without interference from outside forces. Dialogues
should result in, among others, an acknowledgment of the universality of human
rights, that indigenous cultural communities must be regarded by all parties as
neutral, that ancestral domains are zones of peace, and that achieving transitional
justice for the Lumad and other indigenous communities can be achieved by the
commitment of all to attain peace through peaceful means.
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