On 7-8 October 2021, the UP Institute of Human Rights (IHR), together with the Foundation for Integrative and Development Studies, International Labour Organization (ILO), and European Union in the Philippines conducted two capacity building workshops on freedom of association (FoA) and mechanisms that address FoA issues for the Department of Labor and Employment, Philippine Economic Zone Authority, employers, and employees, under the ILO’s Safe and Decent Work in Ecozones project. Among the participants were government represented by the Department of Labor and Employment and the National Labor Relations Commission, the PEZA-Mactan Economic Zone Authority, employers including the Employers Confederation of…

Dean Edgardo Carlo L. Vistan, II and Associate Dean Solomon F. Lumba U.P. College of Law How can you add gold to the sunset, said Justice Holmes. Sometimes, words just aren’t enough. But even though the deepest feelings often seem unremarkable when expressed in language, there are still those precious moments when we just have to take a chance and hazard to articulate what is best said unspoken in the hope that the words will echo on long after our voices have been silenced. Yesterday, 11 October 2021, one of those times came to pass when the sun set on…

UP IHR celebrates Indigenous Peoples Month with launch of “Translating  Justice: A Handbook on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights” On 6 October 2021, the UP Institute of Human Rights (UP IHR), in celebration of the Indigenous Peoples Month, launched “Translating  Justice: A Handbook on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights.” The book provides translations of the Indigenous People's Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA, Republic Act No. 8371), United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the IPRA into Tagalog, Sugbuanon and Iloco. Tuwali Ifugao lawyer and IHR Senior Legal Associate Atty. Raymond Marvic Baguilat, spearheaded this…

The Law Remembers: Philippine Jurisprudence on Martial Law Atrocities and Stories 21 September 1972 marks the day when the late Dictator Ferdinand Marcos signed Proclamation No. 1081, placing the Philippines under a nationwide state of Martial Law. In what has come to be one of the country’s darkest chapters, Marcos’ tyrannical regime oversaw thousands of human rights violations, including tortures, enforced disappearances, internal displacements, and extrajudicial killings. Legal truths are determined to serve justice. They are ascertained by a judge through a court trial which is governed by procedural and evidentiary rules. They are truths that relate to past events…

UP IHR co-organizes consultation meeting on safe and decent work in Ecozones On 17 September 2021, the UP Institute of Human Rights (UP IHR), in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Foundation for Integrative and Development Studies, and the European Union, held the second of a series of consultations with different sectors in preparation for capacity-building and training programs on safe and decent work in Ecozones scheduled for October 2021. Opening the meeting, Ms. Diane Lynn Respall, Programme Officer of the ILO Country Office in Manila, underscored that tripartite and social dialogue are crucial in upholding international labor…