The government of the Philippines needs to take “urgent action” to address a “spiralling” series of human rights violations, including the summary execution of children.
That’s the conclusion of a group of independent UN rights experts, who have issued a joint call to action, in order to protect “many groups” in society threatened by the hard-line government of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Indigenous women in the Philippines have “many problems,” including a lack of recognition of their ancestral land rights, so they need to be empowered in order to stand up for those rights, a human rights advocate has urged.
Angelina Baltazar – Ortiz, an Indigenous Mansaka woman from the Compostela Valley in the Philippines, was at UN headquarters for the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
Allegations of grave human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) should face a high-level international probe, the UN Human Rights chief said on Wednesday.
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein’s announcement at the Human Rights Council in Geneva follows the discovery of new mass graves there.
Elsewhere in Africa, Zeid condemned horrific violence in South Sudan, reports of state-led enforced disappearances and torture in Burundi and “brutal oppression” in Mali.
Daniel Johnson has more.
Countries should not be afraid to strengthen the rights of indigenous peoples as guaranteed by a UN Declaration adopted a decade ago, a UN Special Rapporteur has urged.
The Declaration, adopted in 2007, is a compilation of “tears and complaints” brought by the indigenous peoples to the attention of world leaders, Victoria Tauli Corpuz said.
