03/27/2026: Latest human rights news from Rights Report Philippines
CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT
8 Things You Need to Know About the Philippines’ Removal from the UN Child Rights Watchlist. And Why the Celebration Was Premature.
CONTEXT CHECK: The Commission on Human Right endorsed and celebrated the Philippines’ removal from the UN list of countries with grave violations against children in armed conflict. Here are reasons why that’s a problem.
CHILDREN
Hooked: What the U.S. Verdict Against Meta and YouTube Means for the Philippines
A landmark U.S. verdict says Meta and YouTube knew their platforms posed addiction risks to children and said nothing. The Philippines — the world’s most Facebook-saturated and top YouTube-using country — has no equivalent protection. It should.
DRUG WAR
Drug War: How the World Failed the Philippines
OPINION: Aside from the belated case at the International Criminal Court, institutions of international accountability have been missing in action. The UN came up short. The EU faltered. The ASEAN didn’t even bother.
ECONOMIC RIGHT / POVERTY
The Philippines Failed Filipinos Long Before This Energy Crisis Did. Is It Time for OPSF 2.0?
NEWS ANALYSIS: Decades of policy failure — from the OPSF to oil deregulation — have left ordinary Filipinos with no real shelter from the worst fuel shock in the country’s history.
Marcos Taps Coal to Deal with Energy Crisis. Sound Move? Or Just a Habit That’s Hard to Break?
IN CONTEXT: President Marcos has said he wants the Philippines to move away from coal. But by 2030, the country’s coal demand is estimated to rise by at least 15 percent. That is not moving away – that is walking deeper into the coal trap the Philippines created for itself.
CIVIC SPACE
Philippines Lands on Global Rights Watchlist Amid Crackdown on Activists
The Philippines already carries a “Repressed” rating from the CIVICUS monitor, the second worst designation a country can receive.
LGBT AND SOGIE
Not Just Showbiz: Alvin Aragon’s Anti-LGBT Campaign Echoes a Script to Block LGBTQ Rights. It’s Also Illegal.
ANALYSIS AND A CALL TO ACTION: Alvin Aragon’s statements against LGBTQ people and parents are being dismissed as celebrity drama. They shouldn’t be. His language tracks — almost word for word — the talking points that have blocked a landmark anti-discrimination law in Congress for 25 years. And the law he may be breaking has not been enforced against him.
LABOR RIGHTS
Crackdown in Lucio Tan’s Factory Highlights Abuse of Workers in ‘Special Economic Zones’
Water cannon incident is just the latest in a string of abuses in Laguna Technopark ecozone. Advocates are urging the European Union to enforce GSP+ human rights-tariff scheme, saying this and previous violations fall within its purview.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Islamic Jurists in Muslim Mindanao Push for Rights of Women and Children, One Fatwa at a Time. Congress, Meanwhile, Sits on Its Hands on Rape Law.
NEWS ANALYSIS: The latest fatwa by the Bangsamoro Darul-Ifta’ is a landmark edict banning forced marriage of rape survivors. Can that and other fatwas accumulate enough religious and social weight to change what no law from Manila has managed to change?