Human Rights into the 21st centuryGrowing international awareness, fostered by mass communications, has heightened the sense of urgency for respect of human rights.Thousands of individuals and citizens groups around the world are fighting for their rights and freedoms.United Nations action for human rights continues.Yet millions of people around the world suffer some serious violation or deprivation of their basic rights and freedoms -- everything from torture, rape and corrupt judicial systems to bonded labour, hunger and lack of access to health services, housing, sanitation and water.Will there ever be a global culture of human rights?It is up to each and every one of us -- from Presidents and Prime Ministers to business executives, farmers and students -- to work toward this dream.As reported by Amnesty International published in May of this year:Human rights defenders and journalists were at risk of unlawful killings, and thousands of cases of grave human rights violations remained unresolved. Victims of human rights violations, including during martial law from 1972 to 1981, continued to be denied justice, truth and reparations.In April, the Philippines acceded to the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture, but has yet to establish the required mechanism to monitor treatment of detainees.And according to a 2013 report of Human Rights Watch:The Aquino administration has failed to keep its commitment to hold those responsible for extrajudicial killings to account. Since 2001, hundreds of leftist activists, journalists, environmentalists, and clergy have been killed by alleged members of the security forces. Local human rights organizations reported approximately 114 cases of extrajudicial killings since Aquino came to office, and 13 at this writing. Despite strong evidence that military personnel have been involved, investigations have stalled. No one was convicted for political killings in 2012.The Philippines was one of 48 countries that signed the 1948 Declaration, and since then we have been one of the worlds leading countries in the formal and legal recognition and articulation of human rights principles. In 1951, within three years from the adoption of the UDHR, the Philippine Supreme Court was one of the first courts in the world to recognize and apply the rights under the Declaration to resolve an actual case (Meijoff v. Director of Prisons). At present, the Philippines is currently a signatory of virtually all major human rights covenants with a few notable exceptions like the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).Our countrys experience with human rights, however, has not, unfortunately, been one long tale of articulation and achievement. We went through the dark period of Martial Law, where all our lofty declarations fell to naught in the face of massive levels of State-led and State-sponsored human rights violations. And even with the restoration of formal democratic institutions in 1986, and the adoption of our current Constitution in 1987 a document widely hailed as a human rights constitution for its groundbreaking institutionalization of human rights principles in fundamental law our governments human rights record has been far from spotless.In the 26 years since People Power allowed us to adopt our human rights constitution, human rights violations have continued to take place, despite the sincere and valiant efforts of government institutions and one of the worlds most active and dynamic non-government human rights communities to eliminate abuses and create safeguards to individual rights and freedoms. Widespread poverty, environmental degradation, impunity, and corruption are glaring testaments to our communal failure.Today we have to recapture our commitment to enforce human rights, by redefining our agenda, approach and strategy in dealing with the human rights issues of our times. One that does not merely pay lip service to our international pledges but one that is grounded and mindful of the existing socio-economic conditions and political realities, and guided by international norms and standards.During the waning years of the previous Administration, a comprehensive approach to human rights as encapsulated into a single plan was crafted but unfortunately not adopted before the end of the Presidential term. This was a time when the Philippines was reeling from criticism on both the domestic and international front for its human rights record with pervasive extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, crackdowns on basic civil rights such as the freedom of speech, of the press, and assembly, and widespread hunger, poverty, and homelessness.The human rights situation was bleak and discouraging at the time. The dismal state of the human rights situation then cannot be illustrated more vividly than by reference to the ill-fated 23rd day of November in 2009 that shocked the country and the world. That day, 57 people, most of whom were journalists, were massacred, butchered in broad daylight and buried in a mass grave. It was a horrifying mass killing carried out to stifle electoral democracy; one, which we now know as the Maguindanao Massacre. Four years since then, justice remains elusive for the families of the victims. Half of the 197 persons accused of the crime remain at large, while the prosecution of the rest drags on through year after year of interminable delays.Conference panels will address a range of key topics, including: Human rights fact-finding: politics and imperialism Victims and witnesses in human rights fact-finding: empowerment or extraction? Fact-finding for advocacy, enforcement, and litigation: purposes and cross purposes Understanding and improving fact-finding through interdisciplinary expertise and methodologies Fact-finding case studies: cross-cutting themes Fact-finding with crowd sourcing, social media, and big data Does human rights fact-finding need international guidelines?ISSUESInsurgency and Ethnic ConflictsIn September, serious fighting erupted in the southern city of Zamboanga between a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), and the Philippine military and police. A reported 161 civilians, MNLF fighters, and government soldiers and police were killed in three weeks of fighting in Zamboanga and neighboring Basilan. Nearly 120,000 people were displaced by the fighting and remained homeless at time of writing. Many of those relocated to evacuation centers are at risk due to overcrowding and poor sanitation.The Islamist armed group Abu Sayyaf remains active and engages mainly in kidnappings, including the abduction of two people in September.The communist New Peoples Army (NPA) conducted attacks against government forces in various parts of the country. The latest proposal for peace talks with the government collapsed in February 2013.Attacks on Journalists and Criminal DefamationThe Philippines remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. In 2013, seven journalists were killed, according to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, a Manila media advocacy group. Vergel Bico, the 41-year-old editor ofKalahi, a weekly newspaper in Calapan City in the central Philippines, had been writing on the drug trade, among other issues. Motorcycle-riding assailants fatally shot him in the head on September 4. Nanding Solijon, a broadcaster at radio station DXLS, was shot seven times by two motor-riding assailants as he was crossing a street in Iligan City in Mindanao on August 29. On August 1, gunmen entered the home of photojournalist Mario Sy in General Santos City in Mindanao and shot him twice, killing him. According to local monitors, 18 journalists have been killed since Aquino became president.Three journalists were convicted of criminal libel in 2013. The most recent, in September, was Stella Estremera, editor-in-chief ofSun Star Davaowho, together with the papers former publisher, Antonio Ajero, was convicted for a 2003 story identifying people a police report said were suspects in the illegal drug trade in Digos City. The previous month, a columnist for the Cebu City daily theFreemanwas convicted of libel for a 2007 column that criticized the governor of Cebu province at the time, Gwendolyn Garcia. The defendants faced prison. Free expression groups urged the Philippine government to decriminalize libel. Several journalists have been imprisoned over the years for criminal defamation.Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced DisappearancesWhile there has been a notable decline in extrajudicial killings under the Aquino administration, they remain a serious problem and rarely result in a prosecution.Killings by death squads in urban centers including Metro Manila, Davao City, and Zamboanga City remain a serious problem. The victims are frequently petty criminals, drug dealers and street children. By all accounts these killings largely go uninvestigated and there are no reports of death squad members being prosecuted.In November 2012, the government announced that it would create a judicial superbody, composed of various government and law enforcement agencies, to give priority to the investigation and prosecution of extrajudicial killings. However, the agency was not yet operational at this writing.Abuses by Paramilitary ForcesParamilitary forces controlled by the Philippine government and military committed serious human rights abuses in 2013. Alleged militia members working with the military murdered Benjie Planos, a tribal leader in Agusan del Sur province, on September 13.President Aquino has not fulfilled his 2010 campaign promise to revoke Executive Order 546, which local officials cite to justify providing arms to their private armies.The trial in the Maguindanao Massacre case, in which 58 people linked to a local politician and journalists were summarily executed by members of the Ampatuan political clan in Maguindanao province, continued in 2013. However, families of victims were increasingly impatient at the slow pace of the trial. Four years after the killings, the court is still hearing the bail petitions of several of the suspects. In August, five more suspects were arraigned, including the operator of the backhoe that was used to bury the victims. Of 197 identified suspects, 107 have been arrested, all but 6 of whom have been indicted.Children and Armed ConflictA faction of the MNLF took children hostage and used them as human shields during the fighting in Zamboanga City. Several children were killed and wounded. A 15-year-old boy brought by his family to attend a peace rally was taken by MNLF rebels when fighting broke out and was forced to help the rebels feed their hostages. Two other children were arrested on suspicion that they were MNLF rebels.The Philippines government violated domestic and international law by detaining children with non-family member adults for several days in extremely cramped conditions.Womens RightsThe Supreme Court suspended implementation of the countrys landmark Reproductive Health Law following a legal petition from individuals and lay Catholic groups opposing the law. Hearings on the law were ongoing at time of writing. Womens rights advocates point out that the petition delayed government funding for family planning services and reproductive rights education.Key International ActorsThe Philippines verbal conflict with China heightened in 2013, with increasingly heated rhetoric from both sides over disputed territory in the South China Sea. As a result of Chinas alleged incursions into territory claimed by the Philippines, the Aquino government turned for help to the United States, which promised to help finance modernization of the Philippines antiquated naval defense system. Several US senators sought to restrict military assistance to the Philippine army because of continuing rights violations and lack of accountability.