Consultation on the National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRA)

Public Officials and partners from the executive agencies and civil society for regions 6, 7 and 8 converged in Cebu City recently for the 4th area consultation on the National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRA).

 

Executive secretary Eduardo Ermita, chairman of the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC), in a statement read by USEC Severo Catura, said "the consultation will put in place the much-needed public policies, programs, and resources with human rights standards."

 

The Cebu leg is the fourth in a series of area consultations since August 2009 and is palnned to end by December via a national summit, Catura added.

 

Catura, the executive director of PHRC further said, the area consultation is a problem solving mechanism.  It aims to instill national ownership of the plan in as many stakeholders as possible.

 

"We are pushing for a new and a broader way of looking at human rights as it would impact the full development of our people and the nation as a whole," he said.

 

Ermita in his statement also said, the consultation hopes to address human rights issues at their roots.  It involves more than identifying wrongdoers and exhorting government to improve on its obligations.

 

"Largely, we will venture to capacitate and empower all sectors of Philippine society to claim and extend these human rights obligations and entitlements, bringing out genuine improvement at all levels of governance in the country," Ermita stated.

 

Ermita added that the NHRAP becomes the expression of "our political will" and perhaps, one of the legacies of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to ensure that human rights protection and promotion becomes a matter of policy that will transcend politics. (PIA)

Bohol Peace Building Effort

Documentation on the highly successful counter-insurgency program as national peace building template starts.

 

The government brings in the Orientation Workshop on the Documentation of Peace Building Good Practices for Team Bohol at the Bohol Plaza this October 13-14.

 

Team Bohol, the unified team of implementers of the famed Bohol Peace Formula is composed of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, the church and the civil society and the local government, which converged resources for a singular goal.

Such is to dramatically reduce the incidence of armed conflict in the province, not just by the might of the arms but also by peaceful means.

 

The peace initiative which has resulted in Bohol's getting off the list of the country's 20 poorest provinces speak of good governance practice, one that needs to be made a template for replication.

 

In an invitation to participants sent by Governor Erico Aumentado, he told Team Bohol stakeholders "the efforts of the province to provide the lessons and good practices which can be evolved into models in peace building and can be replicated in other conflict areas.

 

With the move to keep the peace process forward, he added the government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) used the services of the Local Government Academy of the Philippines (LGAP) to facilitate the two day workshop.

 

With the LGAP is the project tem of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

The workshop hopes to come out with valuable policy and program recommendations for the national government to keep the peace process moving forward.

 

The ultimate goal is to create a snowball and multiplier effect of these good practices throughout the country by scaling up the process towards an adoptive replication process, Aumentado said. (PIA)