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Human security law, human rights concerns
Human security law, human rights concerns
Opinion
Written by Warina Sushil A. Jukuy
Monday, 06 August 2007 Originally posted by The Amana Media Initiative
The Philippines Human Security Act gives rise to security and insecurity. The spirit of security is relevant to the possible innocent targets as well as the tragic victims of terrorism. On one hand, many of us are even sighing in relief: at last, the Philippines' criminal law is now armed with lethal teeth.
On the other hand, insecurity will primarily grip the existing terrorist groups with foreboding. Who cares if it scares them? They're terrorists anyway, one may say. This law is indeed contrived to protect the lives, liberty and property of Filipinos from terrorism.
But in the process the law risks curtailing and infringing the very ideals it aims to uphold. According to the law, "it is declared a policy of the State to protect life, liberty and property from acts of terrorism, to condemn terrorism as inimical and dangerous to the national security of the country and to the welfare of the people".
The law states that "in the implementation of the policy stated above, the State shall uphold the basic rights and fundamental liberties of the people as enshrined in the constitution." Yet other parts of the Human Security Act arguably could be used to undermine fundamental rights and liberties.
One part of the law allows for "damages in the amount of 500,000 Pesos for every day that [someone] has been detained or deprived of liberty or arrested without a warrant as a result of such an accusation." Surely this is an acknowledgment that the law may at times be relatively prejudicial to human rights?
Other parts of the new law also appear to allow the deprivation of fundamental rights. Generally, the Filipino people must have a reason to cheer because the state now has the will and the legal means to combat terrorism. However, other stakeholders have reason to jeer claims the law will ensure human rights protection for all.
We cannot ignore the understandable anxiety felt by vulnerable groups who have been silent witnesses to extra-judicial killings, disappearances, warrant-less arrests as well as searches in their communities.
Most of them are Muslims; some are mothers and fathers whose young sons were mistakenly apprehended out of mere suspicion or baseless allegations; others were families who just one day found the dead bodies of their loved ones in unsolved mysterious cases.
Most of these were undocumented, and if documented, these are wanting of witnesses; thus, it has been reduced to "mere allegations." If these human rights violations happened even before the Human Security Act, what further infringements will transpire now that legal justification for mere suspicion has been created?
Admittedly, terrorism is a scourge, not only in our homeland but around the world. Civil society needs to speak out against terrorism while ensuring justice for all people, of all faiths, in the Philippines and throughout the rest of the world.
Opinion
Written by Warina Sushil A. Jukuy
Monday, 06 August 2007 Originally posted by The Amana Media Initiative
The Philippines Human Security Act gives rise to security and insecurity. The spirit of security is relevant to the possible innocent targets as well as the tragic victims of terrorism. On one hand, many of us are even sighing in relief: at last, the Philippines' criminal law is now armed with lethal teeth.
On the other hand, insecurity will primarily grip the existing terrorist groups with foreboding. Who cares if it scares them? They're terrorists anyway, one may say. This law is indeed contrived to protect the lives, liberty and property of Filipinos from terrorism.
But in the process the law risks curtailing and infringing the very ideals it aims to uphold. According to the law, "it is declared a policy of the State to protect life, liberty and property from acts of terrorism, to condemn terrorism as inimical and dangerous to the national security of the country and to the welfare of the people".
The law states that "in the implementation of the policy stated above, the State shall uphold the basic rights and fundamental liberties of the people as enshrined in the constitution." Yet other parts of the Human Security Act arguably could be used to undermine fundamental rights and liberties.
One part of the law allows for "damages in the amount of 500,000 Pesos for every day that [someone] has been detained or deprived of liberty or arrested without a warrant as a result of such an accusation." Surely this is an acknowledgment that the law may at times be relatively prejudicial to human rights?
Other parts of the new law also appear to allow the deprivation of fundamental rights. Generally, the Filipino people must have a reason to cheer because the state now has the will and the legal means to combat terrorism. However, other stakeholders have reason to jeer claims the law will ensure human rights protection for all.
We cannot ignore the understandable anxiety felt by vulnerable groups who have been silent witnesses to extra-judicial killings, disappearances, warrant-less arrests as well as searches in their communities.
Most of them are Muslims; some are mothers and fathers whose young sons were mistakenly apprehended out of mere suspicion or baseless allegations; others were families who just one day found the dead bodies of their loved ones in unsolved mysterious cases.
Most of these were undocumented, and if documented, these are wanting of witnesses; thus, it has been reduced to "mere allegations." If these human rights violations happened even before the Human Security Act, what further infringements will transpire now that legal justification for mere suspicion has been created?
Admittedly, terrorism is a scourge, not only in our homeland but around the world. Civil society needs to speak out against terrorism while ensuring justice for all people, of all faiths, in the Philippines and throughout the rest of the world.
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