The situation of human rights this year has seen little or no change in terms of the nature of the violations that are taking place–extrajudicial killings, forced disappearance, torture and displacements due to armed conflict. Here, we observe that promulgation of policies on human rights and the strengthening of the legal framework for the protection of rights are doomed to fail if the institutions of justice responsible for the implementation of rights continue to suffer endemic institutional defects. The cases documented this year were not exceptional cases. They are rather evident of the ongoing, systematic and widespread violations of human rights that continue to thrive regardless of who sits in power. These repetitions of violations, in addition to the apparent absence of conclusion of the previous cases, are a manifestation of the country’s inability to afford even the most elementary form of the protection of rights of its own people.
AHRC-SPR-009-2011-HRRptPhilippines
