Wie steht es um die Menschenrechtslage auf den Philippinen? Der „Krieg gegen die Drogen“, ausgerufen durch den ehemaligen Präsidenten Rodrigo Duterte, hat unzähligen Menschen das Leben gekostet. In den 6 Jahren seiner Regierungszeit wurden in Verbindung damit tausende Menschen, darunter 220 Menschenrechtsaktivist*innen getötet, und die Regierung überzog alle, die es wagten, ihre Meinung zu sagen, mit Verleumdungskampagnen: Die Journalistin Maria Ressa und meine ehemalige Partnerin im parlamentarischen Solidaritätsprogramm Sarah Elago waren Opfer dieser Kampagnen.
Im Mai letzten Jahres wurde Ferdinand Marcos junior zum Präsidenten gewählt. Wird sich die Situation mit der neuen Regierung verbessern? Das wollten eine Delegation des Menschenrechtsausschusses des Europäischen Parlaments bei einer Reise im Februar herausfinden – ich war Delegationsleiterin.
Während der Reise hatten wir ein straffes Programm: Unter anderem trafen wir uns mit Mitgliedern der Ausschüsse für Justiz im Senat und im Repräsentant*innenhaus, mit diversen Ministern, mit Mitgliedern der Menschenrechtskommission, Vertreter*innen der Vereinten Nationen, Organisationen der Zivilgesellschaft, Gewerkschaftsvertreter*innen und Journalist*innen.
Eines der Themen dabei war der Wiederbeitritt der Philippinen zum Römischen Statut des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofs. Für mich wäre dies ein wichtiger Schritt dafür, dass die Philippinen weiterhin auf privilegierte Handelsbeziehungen zur EU setzen können, schließlich ist das sogenannte Handelssystem APS+ an Fortschritte bei den Menschenrechten geknüpft. Zwar hat Präsident Marcos angekündigt, beim sogenannten „Krieg gegen Drogen“ in Zukunft eher auf Prävention und Rehabilitation zu setzen. Aber es gibt weiterhin Berichte über außergerichtliche Hinrichtungen, und die Hinrichtungen der letzten Jahre werden nur sehr sehr schleppend aufgearbeitet, wenn überhaupt. Es ist besonders wichtig, jeden dieser Fälle zu untersuchen und die Verantwortlichen zur Rechenschaft zu ziehen.
Leila de Lima: "I finally want to be free!"
"Red tagging (the practice of branding individuals and/or organisations as leftist, subversive, communist or terrorist and thus "enemies of the state") remains widespread in the Philippines and is used to silence critics. During our meetings, we called for an effective end to this method – and we pointed out that there is an urgent need for an ambitious law to protect human rights defenders.
Another subject of our discussions was the continuing discrimination against women and girls (including with regard to sexual and reproductive rights) and the rights of indigenous peoples. One topic here was access to land and efforts to resolve conflicts in Mindanao – this region is particularly familiar to me because I did research there for my doctoral thesis in 2009 and also repeatedly visited the area later on.
Visiting ex-senator Leila De Lima in prison was particularly important to us. The former senator has been imprisoned for six years now based on fabricated charges. She was one of the first to criticise former President Duterte for his "war on drugs" and called for international investigations to be launched. More and more allegations against her are falling apart, key witnesses have testified (following the change in government) that their incriminating statements are baseless and were made due to external pressure. We demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Leila De Lima and all other political prisoners. And she herself said, "It’s time for me to be free now!"
"Hold the Line”: Visit to Rappler
Another highlight for me was the visit to Rappler. The media company, founded by Maria Ressa, had been the first to report on Duterte's so-called "war on drugs". Since then, Maria Ressa and Rappler journalists have been harassed and subjected to "red tagging" accusations. Therefore, "Hold the Line" has become Rappler's slogan: The platform wants to continue its resistance against attacks and interference in its reporting, as well as its fight against fake news and disinformation. We were very impressed by the work of all those fighting for press freedom in the Philippines – and I left a little message for them:
It became clear during our visit: The new government is clearly more open to discussing issues of human rights and press freedom. This is definitely an encouraging sign – but whether concrete changes will follow remains to be seen. Many of the civil society actors we met were sceptical, also because of their experiences in the past years.
As a delegation, we called for measures to combat impunity, to protect human rights defenders and for the implementation of international labour standards and human rights agreements – and offered EU technical support and meetings to exchange experiences with regard to the agreements. The National Human Rights Commission already supports the reappraisal of the extrajudicial killings, and more cooperation is certainly possible.
Interest of the press in our visit was strong. I was particularly pleased to give an interview to ABS-CBN News. The station lost its broadcasting licence under Duterte and has yet to get it back. You can watch it in full here:
The Human Rights Committee's press release on our visit can be found here. We will take up the issues in a meeting in the coming weeks and will continue following the developments. I would also like to thank my colleagues Isabel Wiselar-Lima, Karsten Lucke, Silvia Sardone, Ryszard Czarnecki and Miguel Urban Crespo who travelled with me for their collegial cooperation, as well as the EU delegation in Manila and its ambassador Luc Veron.
