Kapihan on Human Rights: National Action Plan on Human Rights Forum

Around 60 participants from various civil society organizations, government agencies, and academe attended the Kapihan on Human Rights: National Action Plan on Human Rights forum organized by the Philippine Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism at the Luxent Hotel in Quezon City. The Ateneo Human Rights Center serves as the secretariat of this group.

Representatives from the government presented their human rights priorities, goals, and plans. Meanwhile, representatives from civil society organizations reacted and responded to the presentations and expressed their concerns to address human rights challenges in the country.

Among those in the government panel were Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Richard Paat Papal-latoc, Director Gerald Bitonio of the Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat, and House Committee on Human Rights Chairperson Representative  Bienvenido Abante, Jr.

The Civil Society panel included Ms. Judy Pasimio (Executive Director, LILAK (Purple Action for Indigenous Women's Rights), Ms. Myrna Dominguez (Women's Legal and Human Rights Bureau (WLB)), Mr. Lauro Pucil (Philippine Coalition on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities), and Mr. Jemuel Fuerte (Pinagsamang Lakas ng Kabataan (PILAK).