2021 National Human Rights Situation Report g Executive summary S ince 2018, the Commission on Human Rights has issued reports on the national situation with regard to human rights in general and on thematic issues, such as the Rights of Women with Disabilities (2018), the Haran Report on the Human Rights Violations against the Lumads of Mindanao (2019), and Human Rights Defenders in the Philippines (2020). The 2021 edition of the National Human Rights Report highlights the continuing challenges faced by human rights stakeholders as we enter into the second full year of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Utilizing a structural-process and outcomes framework, the Report analyzes key human rights trends that have been observed in the Philippines as a result of the interaction of State duty bearers and rights-holders. The Report is comprised of six major sections a) Observations on Civil and Political Rights practises; b) Challenges and Efforts to progressively realise Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; c) Thematic Concerns of Vulnerable and Marginalised Sectors; d) State efforts to address the continuing challenges that impact human rights in the Philippines; e) Activities of the Commission on Human Rights in relation to the highlighted human rights concerns and finally f ) Recommendations to key State institutions for adapting a human rights based approach in their respective programs. The Civil and Political Rights Section is composed of two main discussion tracks. Cases of violations of the right to security of persons are presented in both statistical and narrative forms. Emblematic cases of extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary arrests are highlighted in this section of the report. Despite the on-going pandemic and heightened police presence in many localities to impose quarantine related restrictions, cases of extra-judicial killings continue to be monitored by the CHR field offices and civil-society human rights advocates. The section on ESCR gives special emphasis on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic particularly in the government’s initiative to address the right to health issues that are at the heart of this issue. The government’s programs and initiatives are depicted from the vantage point of internationally accepted standards for evaluating the fulfilment of right to health such as Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability and Quality or what is commonly known in human rights parlance as the AAAQ framework. The ESCR section also provides an in-depth presentation of the government’s efforts to ensure that the right to social security is guaranteed especially at this time when millions of people have been economically dislocated by the lingering effects of the pandemic on the private sector which is usually the primary source of livelihood for Filipinos. As with all other ESCR rights in consideration, the government’s effort on the right to security is also viewed in this report using the AAAQ framework. The Right to Food issues are also highlighted in this report. Rising prices and job loss are twin factors that have weakened the ability of ordinary Filipinos to provide adequately for their needs. Movement restrictions due to the wildfire-like spread of the COVID-19 Delta Variant necessitated the reimposition of the highest levels of lockdown restrictions displacing hundreds of thousands of workers.