Case Study - Philippines Metagora Pilot Project

CHAPTER 1: CONCEPTUALISATION OF THE PROJECT (page 4)

Realisation and Violations of Rights to Ancestral Domains and Lands

The study shall proceed further to explore the indigenous peoples’ reported enjoyment of their rights to ancestral domains and lands. The experienced violations, if any, will also be determined. Realisation means that any of the rights to ancestral domains and ancestral lands is enjoyed to a certain extent by the IPs. Violations are deprivations or abuses of the rights to ancestral domains and ancestral lands suffered or experienced by the IPs. Cases that illustrate realisation or abuses will be recorded. Actors - state or non-state actors - who perpetrate abuses or violations will be identified. The nature of abuses, such as ejection, forcible entry, harassment, discrimination, disenfranchisement from participation in decision-making, and other similar acts will be diagnosed. Actions by duty-bearers which provide enjoyment of rights and actions that deprived IPs of their rights to land and ancestral domain will be drawn from IP respondents.

Measures and Mechanisms

Having predetermined the problems and issues connected with the right to ancestral domains and ancestral lands, the human rights issues that emerge out of these problems, and the perceptions and awareness including realisation and violations of the rights to land and ancestral domain, this survey will go on further to determine the measures provided for and actually used by the respondent IPs for the realisation of their rights to ancestral domains and ancestral lands. Measures to enable the full realisation of human rights to be diagnosed shall include, but not be limited to, legislative/policy, programme, and judicial and administrative measures offered by the governance stakeholders, including the government institutions, as implementing arms of the State, the private sector, and civil society. Measures under this survey shall thus refer to any legislative or administrative programme or judicial measures undertaken by the government, whether national or local, or by the indigenous political structures of the IPs/ICCs. When identified, these measures will enable the study to monitor the compliance of the Philippine State, through its national and local government, in its obligations to respect, protect and fulfil IPs’ rights to ancestral domains and ancestral lands.

Human rights implementation must provide for mechanisms that will be accessed by the rights claimholders. Mechanisms may be legal as well as alternative and indigenous. In this survey, the IP respondents will be asked if they are aware of indigenous and non-indigenous mechanisms that they can use to realise their rights to ancestral domains and ancestral lands. These mechanisms will be duly recorded.

Mechanisms undertaken to enable the realisation of human rights must be in place and must be effective if human rights are to be realised and if violations are to be effectively responded to. The mechanisms include coping mechanisms, structures that are established, and customary laws and practices. The mechanisms established in legislation are important for redressing grievances due to human rights violations/deprivations, but these legal mechanisms are not the only ones that may be used. Alternative mechanisms, such as alternative dispute resolutions, can also be employed.

Governance

The goal of rights-based governance is human development that realises the basic human rights and fundamental freedoms of the governed. Its major role/function is to provide an enabling environment and facilitate the realisation of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. Its key stakeholders are the government, the civil society and the private sector (corporate citizens).

In rights-based governance, the subjects of development and active participants and beneficiaries are the people. International norms and standards in development shall be derived from the provisions of the UN Declaration on the Right to Development.

Rights can be demanded and entail obligations on the part of duty-bearers. Inasmuch as the Philippine State had enacted laws, especially IPRA, that mandate the respect, protection and fulfilment of the rights to ancestral domain and ancestral lands, then all governance stakeholders must exert all efforts to fulfil their respective obligations. Civil society and the private sector, in keeping with their responsibilities in governance, should support, advocate and mobilise the people to enhance compliance by those in government to establish measures that comply with human rights norms and standards for the respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights. The IP respondents will also be asked if they have had any experience of enjoying their rights or redressing their grievances through assistance or support obtained from other governance stakeholders, such as the government, civil society and the private sector.

Democracy

Governance must be able to function well, and the possibility to do so realistically can be attained within a democracy wherein governance is expected to be of the people, for the people, and by the people.

The enjoyment of human rights is related to the kind and quality of governance that a society has. Democratic governance appears to be compatible with human rights. In a democracy, the rule of law prevails. People participate and are allowed to make choices.

Everyone has the right to know his/her rights; only then can every human being attain the full realisation of his/her rights. Knowledge of human rights prevents a human being from becoming a victim of human rights abuses or a violator of human rights. Problems and issues of human rights are responsibly addressed in a democracy where governance is enabled to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of the governed.