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(Ibon
Foundation issued this statement on Monday to mark the
opening of the Supreme Court-initiated summit on access
of the poor to the justice system.)
Research group Ibon Foundation welcomes the initiative
of the Supreme Court (SC) to improve the poor’s access
to justice through its nationwide summit today. However,
it said that the country’s economic policies have the
most far-reaching harmful impact that should be
addressed beyond judicial review.
For
one, existing judicial remedies are extremely limited in
addressing the far-reaching economy-wide violations of
human rights. This is aside from how nominally the
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) recognizes economic-,
social- and cultural-rights matters as part of its
mandate to monitor the government’s compliance with
international obligations, such as the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
There
also seems to be no concrete measures to apply the
human-rights approach to poverty reduction. For
instance, the country has no official procedure that
will assess economic policies according to an explicit
economic-, social- and cultural-rights framework.
It
also does not have specific mechanisms by which
policymakers can be held accountable for the effects of
trade, investment and fiscal policies on human rights.
Even the CHR does not have a monitoring of how economic,
social and cultural rights are affected by macroeconomic
policies, which have the broadest influence on realizing
these rights.
As a
result, the Judiciary generally gives in to the
Executive and Legislature on major economic policy
decisions that are deemed unconstitutional, such as the
Mining Act, oil-deregulation law, Epira, etc., even as
it is equally responsible for upholding constitutional
guidelines.
Ibon
strongly recommends that the Judiciary establish a legal
framework wherein existing laws, rules, procedures and
practices can be modified to conform with the ICESCR and
the Philippine Constitution. Measures should also be
placed to ensure that the country’s main economic
planners, trade negotiators and lawmakers are fully
aware of their obligations and commitments under the
covenant in crafting socioeconomic policies.
Last,
the SC should conduct a formal review if the country’s
foreign trade and investment policies are consistent
with its human-rights obligations, and implement
measures that will put these economic policies to public
scrutiny. |
