European Commission’s silence on rights issues disappoints rights groups

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks at a business event in Fairmont Hotel, in Makati on July 31, 2023. (Photo by ELOISA LOPEZ / POOL / Agence France-Presse)

MANILA, Philippines — European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen’s apparent silence on human rights and civil liberties issues disappointed human rights organizations, who urged her to tie any future trade deals with the Philippines to concrete labor and human rights improvements.

On Monday, Human Rights Watch senior researcher Carlos Conde said the renewal of negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between the EC and the Philippines “seems to suggest that the EU is happy with what the Marcos administration has done in the past year.”

“We are not privy to what was discussed behind closed doors, but given the EU’s past expression of concern about the human rights issues in the Philippines, we can only hope that the EU managed to get firm commitments from President Marcos to improve the human rights situation,” he said.

“The EU has its own economic interests to pursue and we don’t begrudge Europeans for seeking to gain economic benefits from the Philippines under Marcos Jr.,” he said. “But we maintain that the EU itself needs to respect and uphold its own commitments—such as the GSP+—about improving human rights in the Philippines, which should not be sacrificed at the altar of trade relations.”

Conde’s statement came after both the EU and the Philippines announced their intention to explore the relaunch of FTA negotiations after a five-year hiatus.

The Philippines enjoys trade preferences under the EU’s Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), which grants duty-free access to the EU market for two-thirds of tariff lines. Incoherent EU policy

But these are conditional on the Philippines adhering to international conventions covering issues such as human and labor rights, good governance, and environmental protection.

Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said the renewed interest in fresh FTA agreements “indicates the incoherence of the EU’s foreign policy with its supposed human rights standards and rhetoric on the Philippines.”

Civicus World Alliance for Citizen Participation, an international watchdog, joined the chorus of calls asking President Marcos to repeal a resolution designating six human rights defenders as terrorist individuals in an effort to amplify their cause during the EC president’s two-day visit here.

In an open letter to Marcos, the global alliance of civil society organizations and activists also called on the Marcos government to “halt all forms of intimidation and attacks on human rights defenders, ensure an enabling environment for human rights defenders and enact a law for their protection.”

“The Philippines government has made repeated assurances to other states that it will protect human rights defenders, including most recently during its Universal Periodic Review in November 2022,” it said. “However, recent cases highlight an ongoing and unchanging pattern of the government targeting human rights defenders.”