General Debate Item 10
Joint Statement on technical cooperation with the Philippines.
3 April 2024
Mr. President,
I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the donor countries on the UN Joint Programme for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Philippines, namely Australia, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and my own country Switzerland.
We commend the efforts of the Government of the Philippines and various UN agencies under the UN Joint Programme for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Philippines (UN Joint Programme) between 2021 and 2024. The UN Joint Program illustrates how collaboration between a UN member state and the United Nations can contribute to concrete progress on human rights while including different actors from civil society and the national human rights institution.
Despite the progress made, certain program objectives have not yet been achieved, particularly regarding domestic investigative and accountability mechanisms. We therefore recall and support the proposal to carry out an evaluation of the UN Joint Programme, as mentioned by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in its report A/HRC/51/58. This evaluation should be conducted independently.
In this context we note that the Government of the Philippines decided not to renew the UN Joint Programme. Although we had hoped to continue the UNJP, we are encouraged that the Government of the Philippines is committed to continuing the mechanism of collaboration with various stakeholders through the “Human Rights Coordinating Council of the Philippines”. We strongly believe that the national human rights institution and Civil society organizations representing a broad cross section of interests and viewpoints must actively be involved within this new institution. We also call on the Government of the Philippines to include the various United Nations agencies to benefit from their expertise, technical assistance and capacity-building measures.
Thank you.