Tingog.com

On Friday, The Philippines along with fourteen other nations was elected to serve on the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC). In this election, The Philippines earned a three year term into the council.

Angola, Bolivia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Qatar, Slovenia and South Africa were chosen after the first round of voting, while Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy made it in the second round.

Egypt?

Was this a triumph for The Republic of The Philippines, or was this a case of yet another round of International Politics? After all, who would have guessed that Egypt would be elected since it had scores of cases in which they clearly violated human rights. In a case that we covered in January, Abdelkareem Soliman, a 22 year old blogger, simply known as Kareem, was arrested for posting critical posts in his blog, he was later sentenced to four years in prison for criticizing Egyptian President Mubarak and insulting Islam. Is this what you call a great embodiment for the Human Rights Council?

But in in The Philippines, a country where there are political killings left and right, journalists being killed, journalists being harassed by The President’s husband, this news is being lauded as proof of this administration’s adherence human rights.

Let The Gloating Begin

According to Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, “The Philippines reelection to the Council is a clear vote of confidence for the Philippines and President Arroyo’s efforts to move further forward the global agenda of upholding and protecting human rights”.

“With this fresh mandate, the Philippines has been given another opportunity to strengthen further its advocacy in key human rights areas,” Romulo added.

In congratulating Davide and Romulo, the President said in a statement that the Philippines election to the UN Council was a “recognition by the member states of our sincere efforts to address issues of human rights, promoting conflict resolution through interfaith dialogue and our strong advocacy for the rights of migrant workers.”

In its bid for reelection to the HRC, the Philippines cited its commitment to strengthen efforts to address politically-motivated killings of media members and political activists, as well as sustain its leadership in promoting interfaith dialogue, advocacy of the rights of migrant workers and making the UN HRC a more efficient and effective organization.

Closing Thoughts

The Human Rights Council has been criticized in the past year for the participating members who do not comply with human rights and who in fact often violate it. Authoritarian regimes like Mubarak’s Egypt bring forth an air of skepticism, and other questionable countries such as Qatar and Angola only further this skepticism.

The election itself is yet another laughable matter because although each country should be chosen by their human rights records, the election process instead has each country only needing to compete with other countries in the same UN regional group. This election round, The Philippines, India, Indonesia, and Qatar were all contesting for four Asian seats and thus easily passed the voting.

We must remember that this council was formed just a year ago in place of the former body, The Commission on Human Rights. The Human Rights Council despite the new name has not overcome the much criticized politicization and ineffectiveness of its predecessor The Commission on Human Rights.

The past year has seen yet another UN body who has not been politically strong in its goals and conviction, and thus The current administration should not be overjoyed but should focus on itself and see the cries of so many of its people suffering in the midst of human rights violations.