EU Parliament adopts joint resolution on Philippines

The European Parliament adopted a joint resolution on the situation in the Philippines, including the case of Maria Ressa. Please find the text here. The resolution is a negotiated compromise between all 6 democratic political groups in the European Parliament. 

It highlights among others:

• the space for civil society is shrinking to an increasing extent the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Report of 2020, the Philippines is included in the top 10 most dangerous countries in the world for workers;whereas the Philippine trade union movement has complained about the repression of workers’ rights, including through ‘red-tagging’, disappearances and killings of labour leaders and trade unionists;
• Condemns all threats, harassment, intimidation, rape and violence against those who seek to expose allegations of extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations inthe country, including human rights and environmental activists, trade unionists and journalists; 
• denounces the misuse of the law and judiciary systems as a means of silencing critical voices; 

It calls on the following:

• on the EU delegation and Member States’representations in the country to strengthen their support for civil society in their engagement with Philippine authorities, and to use all available instruments to increase their support for human rights and environmental defenders’ work, 
• Given the seriousness of the human rights violations in the country, calls on the European Commission, in the absence of any substantial improvement and willingness to cooperate on the part of the Philippine authorities, to immediately initiate the procedure which could lead to the temporary withdrawal of GSP+ preferences;
• Calls on the Philippine authorities to support the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), and to ensure effective human rights due diligence processes for investment, development and business projects,especially with regard to large scale agribusiness acquisitions, extractive industries,infrastructure projects and cooperation involving the security sector; calls on companies based in or operating within the EU to strictly comply with the UNGPs and both international and national human rights law, as well as to conduct a meticulous and comprehensive due diligence process in relation to all their business operations and relationships within the country.