October 01, 2008
Democracy and Human Rights
Visiting German Parliamentarians Meet Philippine Civil Society
The worldwide promotion and protection of democracy and human
rights is a key concern of Germany. It is reflected in Germany’s
foreign aid priorities. It is therefore not surprising that two
parliamentarians visiting the Philippines who sit on the parliament’s
foreign aid committee would pay special attention to issues of
democracy and human rights in the Philippines and in the region.
And since civil society plays a pivotal role in both fields, they
sought out its perspective on two occasions this week.
This is why Mr. Jürgen Klimke from the Christian Democratic
Union, the party of chancellor Merkel, and Mr. Hellmut Königshaus
from the oppositionist Free Democratic Party, visited the office
of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty to participate in
a meeting of the Philippine branch of the
Working
Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism (Working Group) on
1 October 2008. Atty. Carlos Medina and Atty. Arpee Santiago briefed
the visitors on the long history of the regional working group that
goes back to the early 1990s. They outlined its composition, an
alliance of eminent legal experts and activists from the region,
and its strategy to gain the trust of ASEAN governments through
patient dialogue. They noted the close partnership between the Working
Group and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty: The Foundation
had
helped to bring the actors together that started
the Working Group, and it has partnered with the RWG during the
whole long process, persevering through periods when it looked like
nothing would ever come out of it. They described
how the
process graduated from informal meetings to a regular rhythm of
workshops and round tables that have become part of the
official ASEAN agenda. Finally the process has born fruit in the
new ASEAN charter that calls for the establishment of a Human rights
body in ASEAN. Now there is a High Level Panel at work drafting
the terms of reference for that body, and the Working Group is working
closely with this panel to get a result that will meet the aspirations
of civil society.
Patience is needed to achieve change – a point made in
the discussion with the parliamentarians when they questioned
the slow pace of progress in Burma and the seeming reluctance
of ASEAN to get tougher on its member state. While progress was
disappointingly slow, ASEAN has gotten tougher on Burma,
and there is encouraging progress in other authoritarian ASEAN
member states when it comes to their willingness to deal with
human rights issues.
In the evening, the two parliamentarians were the chief guests at
a dinner dialogue on Democracy and Human Rights that was jointly
organized by the four German political foundations active in the
Philippines: the
Konrad Adenauer Foundation,
the
Friedrich Ebert Foundation,
the
Hanns Seidel Foundation
and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty. Representatives
from the academe, think tanks, research institutions, grass roots
organizations, human rights groups and the media debated the current
state of democracy in the Philippines and the various reform proposals.
The Mindanao conflict featured in the debate, both in relation to
the state of democracy in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao
and the debate about constitutional change to bring in federalism.
The state of human rights in the country received attention as well,
with a nuanced assessment of the causes of rights violations and
the systemic weaknesses with regard to prosecution offenders.
The parliamentarians appreciated the variety of views and the breadth
of perspectives they were able to get that evening and pronounced
themselves impressed with the
vibrancy of civil society
in the countries – certainly a key ingredient in any democratic
change.
