Uphold Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law
16 March 2008 - Sulong CARHRIHL
Ten years ago today, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP, including the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army) signed the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). This is the first and only substantive agreement between the two parties – the first step toward their joint aim of ending the armed conflict and achieving just and lasting peace, affirmed by both parties in the Hague Declaration of 1992.
Yet far from fostering an atmosphere favorable to peace negotiations, the past months have been marred by continuing bloodshed at the battlefront between the armed forces and the communist insurgents.
There has been talk of returning to the negotiating table, even a call for ceasefire by the government, but the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is continuing in its offensive. Recruitment to the Citizen’s Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGU) and Barangay Defense Systems (BDS) has steadily increased in the past months.
Both sides continue to commit summary executions. Sympathizers of either the military or the NPA and worse, innocent civilians, become open targets. Two civilians suspected to be NPA supporters were killed last July 17, 2007 when soldiers opened fire on their house in Virac, Catanduanes. In the same province, around 20 alleged members of the NPA opened fire along a public road, killing two civilians and wounding two others.
On November 17, 2007, around 11 residents, mostly Agta, in Northern Quezon were forcibly recruited to the CAFGU. A fifteen-year-old boy disappeared from their home and was reported to been brought in a military camp in Tanay, Rizal.
Last December 9, 2007, 82 families in Quezon were displaced after an encounter between the the New People’s Army and the military.
All these are clear violations of the now decade-old CARHRIHL. Similar incidents have sullied the past ten years, and unless both groups resolve to abide by this agreement, the next ten years will be no different.
In view of the expected escalation of hostilities, Sulong CARHRIHL exhorts both the government and the NDFP to push the observance of respect for human rights and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) among their ranks. Sulong CARHRIHL calls for the lifting of the suspension of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) so that the GRP Monitoring Committee and the NDF Monitoring Committee might reconvene the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC), whose mandate is to investigate violations of the CARHRIHL and hold its violators accountable.
Sulong CARHRIHL also supports the passage of the draft bill on International Humanitarian Law as a legal instrument that will enforce the rights and protection of civilians as well as combatants, as provided for in the CARHRIHL
Communities who are aware of the obligation of the two parties under the CARHRIHL to respect the rights of civilians are at an advantage because they can assert their right to be protected during armed conflict. Sulong CARHRIHL partners nationwide continue to push for the observance of the CARHRIHL both at the national and local levels as well as the education of civilians on human rights, International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and CARHRIHL.
Finally, the call to find a peaceful, political solution to the armed conflict remains relevant in consideration of the gross impact of war on the people, the economy and the environment, and the absence of any real winner in this long-standing warfare.
- Joeven Reyes and Darlene Ramos
