THE COMMISSION on Human Rights (CHR) is an independent constitutional office created under the 1987 Constitution, with the primary function of investigating all forms of human rights violations involving civil and political rights in the Philippines. Environmentalists and health advocates have an interesting proposition worth supporting – that CHR plays a more active role, too, in the pursuit of the right of every Filipino to be protected against hazardous substances.
For starters, they urge the CHR to review and update the Human Rights Advisory that the Commission issued back in 2014 expounding on “The People’s Right to Chemical Safety: A Fifteen-Point Human Rights Agenda.”
Indeed, while there has been some progress in advancing the people’s right to chemical safety eight years since the said advisory was promulgated, much more needs to be done to protect the people, particularly the vulnerable populations, from the adverse impacts of hazardous substances.
The CHR must put the spotlight on the need to ensure a non-toxic environment for present and future generations, particularly as countries develop an instrument on plastic pollution addressing the full and toxic life cycle of plastic, and as they elaborate the future framework and arrangements for the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management.
The 2014 advisory called “for health-based and human rights-based policies on chemicals in the Philippines that will guarantee our people’s right to chemical safety, taking into consideration the integrated life cycle approach, the precautionary principle and the public’s right to know and meaningful participation.”
Since it was issued, the government has implemented policies and measures advancing the people’s right to chemical safety, including banning lead in all types of paints; phasing out mercury-added products, including mercury use in dental restorative procedures; prohibiting household pesticides containing chlorpyrifos and dichlorvos; and revising the chemical control order (CCO) for mercury and issuing new CCOs for some priority chemicals such as arsenic, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium.
Also, the CHR itself in May 2022 released the unprecedented “National Inquiry on Climate Change Report,” which, as noted by Greenpeace Philippines, “established that climate change affects the full scope of human rights of the Filipino people (including the) rights to life, food, water, sanitation, and health, and collective rights to food security, development, self-determination, preservation of culture, equality, and non-discrimination.”
However, many of the recommended actions in the said Human Rights Advisory have yet to be realized, including the adoption of alternative agricultural practices using natural and organic materials and processes. There are also numerous studies published during the last eight years pointing to the urgency of addressing toxic chemical components in plastics, which can pose harm to human health and the ecosystems. Some of the “substances of concern” used in the manufacture of plastics are often undisclosed in product labels, depriving the public of their right to know and make informed decisions.
The CHR should come up with an updated advisory on chemical safety that will reiterate and uphold the people’s right to be protected against hazardous substances in line with the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
