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Traders Hotel Manila , Pasay City
20 – 24 April 2009
Welcome Remarks
delivered by
LEILA M. DE LIMA
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines
Good morning! To the delegates from the National Human Rights Commission of Indonesia and the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia: Selamat pagi! To our fellow human rights advocates from the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand: Sawatdi torn chao! To the representatives from the Provedoria for Human Rights and Justice of Timor-Leste: Bon dia! At sa aking mga kababayan, magandang umaga po sa inyong lahat!
A very warm welcome to all the participants of this Training Workshop on National Human Rights Institutions and the International Human Rights System. I thank and congratulate the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF), through its Director, Mr Kieren Fitzpatrick, for organizing such an important and much-needed event. Here with us is Mr. Cris Sidoti. I would also like to commend Ms. Suraina Pasha for her efforts in coordinating among the five Asian NHRIs.
If you have been nominated by your respective NHRI to participate in this Training Workshop, it is because you are one of those who have heeded the call for human rights advocacy. It is very true that many are called to join this movement, but few truly answer the call. Perhaps it is because, as history has proven, being a human rights defender is a very demanding, challenging and, yes, even dangerous undertaking.
Ordinary people may find it difficult to put their own lives at risk in order to protect and vindicate the human rights of the oppressed, but there are those, like you, who take up the cudgels anyway because you know that you are fighting for something very important: the preservation of the humanity of human beings, the preservation of that quality that could mean the very survival, safety and development, not just of this generation, but of future generations. You are here because you did not go looking for a job, or a career. You are here not because you want to make a difference and not just a living. And, for this, I commend and welcome you to the fold, so to speak.
I cannot emphasize enough that human rights advocacy is not a job or a career. It is a calling. Trust me when I say that, as a human rights defender working for a national human rights institution, you will have to live and breathe and ponder over almost each and every one of your nation’s problems and issues because, at the end of the day, you will discover that everything is inevitably connected to human rights. In fact, because of the ever-changing and ever-merging fabric of world politics, you will even have to keep yourself, at the very least, informed of what is happening in other countries, particularly the neighboring once.
This is why this five-day event is such a key undertaking. It is important for two reasons:
Of course it is important for us to learn, at the outset, the basics about the human rights instruments and systems we work with. But we each could have learned about these things in our own respective home countries. Why do we have to convene in one place and be educated as one group? Why do we have to go through all this trouble and expense when we could have studied human rights principles and standards without having to fly to a foreign country? The answer is very simple: human rights advocacy is only as effective as the partnerships and cooperation that are built between individual persons and individual organizations. There are no multiple human rights movements. There is only one. And we are all part of it. To truly serve this calling to which we have dedicated ourselves, we must work as one – helping one another, augmenting each other’s deficiencies and weaknesses, learning from each other’s experiences –until we become one strong community, capable of putting our heads together to solve our personal, as well as common, problems.
The world is evolving, nations number in the hundreds, global population is currently being quoted at 6.77 billion, issues and problems abound, there are thousands of internal as well as international conflicts currently being fought – and yet… and yet you will learn that human rights is the same wherever you are, whoever you are, and whoever your friends or so-called “enemies” are. Human rights are universal, indivisible, and interdependent. The forms of violations may vary, but human rights are constant. New ones may be recognized, and be given legal definition, but that doesn’t the fact that they are inherent and inalienable.
You are here to learn these basic things. But, I would like to quote to you the words of Doris Lessing, writing about education:
You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others, will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself-educating your own judgment. Those that stay must remember, always and all the time, that they are being molded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this society.
I quote these words to you, not to detract from the value of this week’s endeavor, but to emphasize that what you will be trained about is merely the basics. It is not the be all and end all of human rights advocacy. I quote these words to you to stress that you, as human rights advocates, are encouraged to branch out on your own to be open-minded, creative and innovative in pursuing the ends of the human rights movement: the preservation of the dignity of each human being. Being resourceful and pioneering is imperative in our line of work because, as you will discover, human rights violators do not play by the rules and violations will take on a number of forms and manifestations and, for these, you have to be prepared.
But, of course, before you can be creative and innovative, you must first familiarize yourselves with the important basic information. Which is why the Philippines , particularly we, in the Commission on Human Rights, are extremely honored to host you all today.
In hindsight, my opening message may have been a tad foreboding, but it can’t be helped because we, as human rights defenders, deal with harsh reality. However, we should never approach things as if it’s a mission impossible. Otherwise, we might as well throw in the towel now. No, nothing is impossible. Yes, it will be tedious, difficult, demanding and challenging, even frustrating, but you should keep in mind that nothing worth doing is ever easy – and fighting for human rights is not easy, ever, but it is very, very worthwhile.
I know this from my own personal experience because I have seen the Commission on Human Rights develop from being a more or less obscure government office into a bastion for human rights and justice that Filipino citizens can trust and depend on. Our intervention are being consistently sought today whenever people feel violated. The CHR has become a household name, one that brings hope and vindication to every Filipino people who requires or seeks its help. The road has been long and difficult, and the journey has been tiring and, at times, frustrating – and it is not even at an end yet. But I am encouraged by the improvements I see. And this is one lesson I can share with you while you, like myself, are just at the beginning of your journey as human rights advocates: learn to move past the setbacks and revel in the triumphs, however small they may seem – they are never insignificant. They will help you get through many long work weeks.
So, to all the new staff members and officers of the different NHRIs, I welcome you, not just to this training workshop, but also to your new life as human rights advocates.
May this five-day event foster greater and more enduring solidarity among the NHRIs of the Indonesia , Malaysia , Thailand , Timor-Leste and the Philippines .
Thank you for coming. May we all have a productive workshop and Mabuhay ang Karapatang Pantao! Long live human rights!