INSTRUMENTS MONITORING OFFICE

Concept:

The Philippines has ratified major human rights treaties which, as a State Party, it is under obligation to comply with. The Philippine Commission on Human Rights through its Instruments Monitoring Office is mandated to monitor government compliance and undertake independent review and reporting of the different international treaties and agreements entered into by the Philippines.

TREATIES AND MONITORING PROGRAM: This program has the following objectives:

To formulate and be responsible for the application of policies, standards, guidelines and operating mechanisms, and procedures on the conduct of major treaties monitoring;

To develop and apply methodologies for the provision of advise and assistance to government and its institutions in complying with treaty obligations and in orienting decision makers and implementers on new treaties and obligations, and for effective advocacy in harmonizing domestic laws with international standards and best practices on human rights;

To undertake continuing research on comparative and best practice local and international experience in legislative harmonization with human rights standards, in effective government compliance with human rights treaties and international obligations and design adaptation/replication models for potential adoption by the government;

To develop and apply methodologies in the provision of advice and technical assistance to government in its preparation of government compliance with treaty obligations, and in the independent reporting by CHRP of its evaluation of government compliance;

To develop and apply methodologies and guidelines, internal and external in the development by government of national action plans that will help improve promotion and protection of human rights and realization of the right to development through the application of the rights-based approach, and the development of the content of the advisory and assistance program by the CHRP; and

To conduct assessments and prepare the CHRP independent report on government compliance with international treaty obligations on human rights.

INDICATOR SETTING PROGRAM:

Concept and Objective:

The government needs to apply human rights standards in the performance of its obligations. The mainstreaming of the rights-based approach is a move towards this objective. To facilitate this, human rights indicators under the different treaties with application methodologies that will guide government and at the same time, review government compliance with its treaty obligations, need to be developed.

Under this program, a pilot study will be conducted entitled Rights Based Indicators on Selected ESC Rights. This is a component of the right to development program of the CHR. The CHRP together with MAG, INAM and TFD will lay the foundations for the integration of the rights-based approach in the area of food and health. As a major component of the minimum basic needs, the selection of these two areas is rooted in the belief that without these, all other aspects of human existence will suffer. Thus, the protection, promotion, and fulfillment of the right to food and health should be made a primary concern in governance and government should work hand in hand with other stakeholders towards that goal.

Scope of Work:

Review and analysis of performance indicators for all government agencies involved in food and health, as well as indicators used by non-government agencies in their programs and projects in health;

Determination of Baseline Data per indicator and corresponding government commitments based on agency plans, the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) and the country’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG); and
Conduct of a consultation/dialogue between government agencies and civil society organization on issues and gaps in the government’s performance of its obligations.

Implementation:

The CHRP will primarily be responsible for the inventory of indicators of non-government agencies. The activities to be undertaken include the following:

Workshop on RBA Mapping of government agencies on food and non-government organizations with members of the RTD Cluster and concerned GOs/NGOs.
Data gathering of standards and indicators on food and health from government agencies responsible therefore, e.g. Department of Agriculture, National Food Authority, Department of Health, etc.
Review of and identification of gaps between standards and GO indicators on food and health;
Preparation of Matrix of GO Indicators and Targets of Agencies and List of Data Gaps for Data Generation; and
Workshop of RTD cluster members to discuss and refine GO and NGO Outputs. The output for this activity is the Consolidated Baseline Data on Right to Food and Health Indicators.

Non-Government Sector Indicators: The Medical Action Group (MAG) and Integrated Alternative Medicine (INAM) shall take the lead in renewing and compiling indicators of the NGOs. The activities under this component will be undertaken simultaneously with the activities of the government sector. As an initial activity for the sector, INAM and MAG will join the CHRP in the first activity identified under Component I. The RBA Mapping of Non-Government Organizations will serve as input to the activities of the INAM and MAG which include the following:

Conduct of interviews of key informants with expertise and knowledge on health;
Area visits on some health programs of the NGOs to gather performance indicators;

Conduct of focus group discussions with POs and NGOs involved in setting up Community Health Programs; and
Consolidation of all data gathered for use as baseline indicators on rights to health and food.

GO and NGO Dialogue: To be headed by the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP), this component will involve the conduct of a dialogue on issues and gaps in government performance of its obligations to protect, promote and fulfill the rights to food and health.