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10 December 2008
Heritage Hotel Manila
Keynote Speech
delivered by
LEILA M. DE LIMA
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines
Good morning! A very pleasant morning to all of you.
At last, after months of preparation and more than a dozen preparatory events, the big day itself is at hand. December 10, 2008 . The big sixty (60) for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is finally here.
First of all, I would like to acknowledge all the hard work and effort that went into the laying down the groundwork for this day’s events. Congratulations, first and foremost, to all my co-workers in the Commission on Human Rights – our Commissioners: Commissioner Cecilia Rachel V. Quisumbing, Commissioner Ma. Victoria V. Cardona, Commissioner Norberto dela Cruz; our Executive Director, Atty. Jacqueline V. Mejia; all our directors from the Central and Regional Offices; and all our staff and employees. You have all done great work, and all that remains now is for you to enjoy this day’s events and bear witness to the fruits of your labors.
I would also like to welcome all our invited guests. We, in the Commission on Human Rights, are grateful to you for honoring our invitation and showing your solidarity with us, particularly on this momentous occasion. For the CHR, this day is certainly significant because, without this instrument called the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” the Commission itself might not even be in existence. In other words, by celebrating its 60th Anniversary with us, you are, in fact, celebrating the very foundation upon which the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines , like other national human rights institutions all over the worlds, was built. Thank you, once again, and we hope that you will find today’s lineup of activities both entertaining and productive.
As most of you are probably aware, this year’s celebration is also historic for me, personally, because this is my first UDHR anniversary celebration since I was appointed Chairperson of the CHR last May 15. This is another reason, therefore, why we wanted to do something special this year. In the past six months, I have learned so many things, faced a variety of human rights issues. Believe me when I say that, right after my appointment, I had no choice but to hit the ground running. I consider this, therefore, as a sort of commencement exercise, which marks my graduation from a sort of 6-month training period.
However, just how different is our world today from that time, sixty years ago, when the UDHR first came into force? Or even earlier, when it was just being drafted? The world, then, was battling the aftermaths of war, recession, famine, poverty, discrimination; there were countries that were emerging from autocratic forms of government and slowly embracing democracy, while others still languished under colonialism or communism.
In some ways, the world seems not that different from how it was 60 years ago. Armed conflict and acts of violence and terrorism threaten to break out in just about any country today, whether in the first world or elsewhere. There is still famine and widespread poverty everywhere. Sadly, even genocide – whether officially declared as such or not – still exists in some nations, most notoriously, in recent years, in Darfur . Discord and tension based on differences in race, religion and even gender is still a common occurrence. Even the financial crisis being felt in just about all continents today – which has now being termed a “global recession” – seems to be not so different from the problems that US President Franklin D. Roosevelt once sought to solve with his “New Deal” Programs. Incredibly, even the problem of piracy has had a resurgence.
In the Philippines , as would be discussed in greater detail at the Kapihan Forum later this afternoon, the situation is not much better.
W ithin the past seven months since the birth of the Fourth Commission, seven months since I had assumed office as the Chairperson of the Commission, in seven months, from the ravaged, war-torn battle grounds of North Cotabato, Lanao and Maguindanao , to the shanty-towns of the inner city to the rural plains of Central Luzon savaged by unspeakable crimes of impunity to the bowels of the jails and detention facilities, we in the Commission have seen with our own eyes, that the struggle to live up to the glorious and aspirational vision embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is as alive today as it was at its was in the decades past.
We celebrate the sixty years since the birth of the UDHR today, yet the reminder that it had always been with us, and venerable vision of the generation that had created it, is palpable, tangible and tactile everyday. Today, we mark the UDHR’s anniversary, yet everyday before today, it is reaffirmed and revered on the streets, in the jungles, in every street corner, in every home and office. To the brave citizens of our beloved motherland, the most ordinary, pedestrian of persons, to civil society, the urban poor, the brethren in media, the upstanding men and women in uniform, the disabled, the detained, and the ones who, daily, fight for the justice and equality so distinctly represented by the UDHR, the people whose faces humanize the UDHR, they have changed my life.
Before my humbling appointment as Chairperson of the Commission, I had no inclination, no right or credential to be lead the struggle to obtain and promote human rights for every Filipino. However, the longer that I sit as the Chairperson, and the more i engage people whose lives are made meaningful by their endeavor to uphold human rights, be it their own or for others, as international representatives or as ordinary citizens, I realize that there is no reason to be apprehensive to lead the Commission. The most outstanding quality of the UDHR is so apparent in the work of human rights defense, and that it is truly universal.
It is universal in that the Declaration itself vests rights applicable to all human beings, without regard to political boundary, racial distinction, revered creed or geographical location. It genuinely belongs to all of us. From this most fundamental characteristic, however, we derive an equally important and corollary principle and that the UDHR creates duty that blurs distinctions between any nation, government, people or individual. The duty is for all of to uphold, protect and promote human rights.
It matters very little that we are from all different walks of life. It matters very little that all stakeholders in human rights are of different statures in life, different backgrounds, professional credentials, educational attainments. Not even the most basic difference between those that have and those that have none is significant. We all are duty bound to uphold the spirit and essence of the UDHR. I find deep comfort that while I have not always been a human rights practitioner, I have always been a human rights stakeholder, as we all are.
The Declaration is not only universal, as its name implies, but is also timeless. The UDHR has served as a template of human rights activism, inspiring generations of heroes of human rights defense. The heroes are manifold, across social strata and standing, and across eras of our turbulent history. It is timeless because the Declaration was design and drafted to be applicable so long as there is a human being who exists.
It is timeless, too, in that it is an impossible aspiration to attain. It is a parabolic line that no matter how far we stretch it, it will never touch the Cartesian axes. Thus, the corollary duty of upholding all human rights for all is an unending task. So long as there is injustice in any form that contravenes the Declaration, the task is not done. And even if we ever arrive at a time when there exists no injustice, there will be the day after, and the day after that, to reaffirm our duty under the Declaration.
Sixty years since the drafting of the Declaration, sixty years since the Philippines ' integral contribution as a founding member country to the Declaration, we are nowhere near the proverbial Cartesian axes. So much more has to be done to even come close to substantial compliance with the Declaration.
We have not seen a single conviction in the cases of extralegal killings, enforced disappearances and torture. We have not seen sufficient supply of adequate housing for all Filipinos. We have not fully seen an equitable distribution of wealth and land. We have not seen compensation for the injured during operations of State security forces. We have not seen a lasting peace agreement between the government and the insurgent communities in the South. We have not seen enough prosecutions by the Ombudsman, and the light at the tunnel's end in our fight against corruption. We have not seen decent education available to every single Filipino child. We have not seen speedy justice for the thousands who languish in jails without finality of their court cases. We have not seen true and equal accessibility to employment for the disabled. We have not seen the right of suffrage available to all, and the full protection of the vote of those who exercise their right to suffrage. We have not seen the end of the suppression of the freedom of speech, of expression and assembly.
We have seen progress, but we have not seen enough. Thus, the timelessness of the Declaration impels us to stand with fortitude and strength, and deliver to our people a real and significant realization of the rights that rightfully belong to them.
As we celebrate the 60 th Anniversary of the UDHR, we mark not only a calendar date, a milestone in longevity, but we re-tell the journey of this amazing document. We re-tell how it had been significant in the groundbreaking moments in world history, in our own history as a country and our own lifetimes. Time and again, it had been said that the Declaration is not so much generic, because of its universality to all men, as it is personal, because of its applicability to each of us. The Declaration cannot fully live if it does not exist personally to every person. It is not fully animated if it does not have a significance to you.
Let this momentous occasion not be a hollow celebration, bereft of any self-examination, stripped of any historical significance. Let it not be hollow, left without any consequence on the lives we lead when the revelry dies down. Let it not be hollow, wherein we fail to recognize our own personal connection to the Declaration, and our own personal duty to uphold it for as long as we live. Finally, let not this celebration be a hollow and empty celebration with our failure to live up to the ideals represented by those heroes who had come before us, and the heroes are among us, and the ideals embodied by those whose most ordinary of lives are immersed in the struggle for human rights, thus animating and breathing life to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Maraming salamat atmabuhay kayong lahat.