CPA lauds UNSR Irene Khan’s recomms to the Philippines in the 59th Session of the UN Human Rights Council
June 20, 2025
Cordillera Peoples Alliance is one with the Filipino people in applauding the recommendations to the Philippines of UN Special Rapporteur (UNSR) on freedom of Expression and Opinion Irene Khan. For CPA, highlight recommendations particularly on national institutions and legal framework include the abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), review of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, penalization of redtagging, eradication of impunity, and decriminalization of libel. The report, derived from her Philippine visit in 2024, was delivered on June 18, 2025 in the 59th Session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Activists in the Cordillera have been victimized by the national institutions and legal frameworks that Khan pointed out in her report: the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 was used to designate 4 CPA leaders as terrorists, and was weaponized to freeze the bank accounts of the victims’ and the organization; Redtagging, red baiting, terrorist tagging have been rampant for the past few years led by no other than the NTF-ELCAC, and cyberlibel was similarly weaponized to criminalize those who speak about the real situations on the ground, like the case of CPA Secretary-General Bestang Dekdeken. Until now, victims are forced to go through slow court proceedings in order to prove their innocence, while State security forces go on violating human rights across the country and across sectors.
Khan’s recommendations are more than welcome, and we call on other UN independent experts to also deliver strong recommendations based on lived experiences of marginalized peoples on the ground. While CPA calls for the immediate junking of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, we still commend Khan for putting the law into question, and we hope that future SR visits to the country will eventually lead to recommendations that challenge the entirety of repressive and exploitative national legal frameworks.
For Reference:
Ned Tuguinay