U.S. Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney Remarks at Launching of the MAREIS Computer System Philippine Commission on Human Rights

January 28, 2009

L-R: U.S. Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney, Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Leila M. De Lima, and Human Rights Commissioner Cecilia Rachel V. Quisumbing review the Commission on Human Rights’s new Martus-Based Executive Information System as Commission

Quezon City

(As Delivered)

A very pleasant good morning to all of you.  I’d like to thank the Chair of the Commission on Human Rights, the incredibly dynamic, active defender of the people of the Philippines, Attorney De Lima, for her incredible work on behalf of the Commission. I’d also like to thank the Commissioners, current and former, for giving their time and their dedication.  

Let me say a few words about the Commission on Human Rights because it is not as simply another large office in the Philippines, and yet it has gained an extraordinary role and following, for its dedication, its commitment to the truth, its commitment to the protection of the people of the Philippines and in understanding of both the challenges and the opportunities we face.  It is one of those offices of government that consistently wins high praise for transparency and hard work and commitment.  I’d like to congratulate you, Madame Chairman, to you and your team, and I’d like you to give their staff a round of applause.

We meet today to move forward the work we share in protecting human rights, in ensuring the dignity of every individual in this country.  What we’re inaugurating today is the work that, my friends at the Asia Foundation say, of many years of the Commission on Human Rights.  We’ve been working on this project since about 2002 and it may sound to you like just a computer system, another database.  To us, it is the way to report, from every corner of this country, any immediate human rights violation issue.  It is the way to tap into the system quickly so that issues don’t fester.  It is the way for the many offices of the Commission on Human Rights to quickly share that information, to prioritize, to get a sense of those parts of the country with greater problems, other developing issues, other cases that are not moving as they should.  So it’s an extraordinary tool in our information age.   It is, as Chairman De Lima says, a way of continuing the work on human rights, but reinventing the way in which we protect the rights of every individual.  It goes to really using our technology to increase and enhance the work so many of you do every day.

Now I hope we will continue to work together to find ways to make our technology work to protect human dignity.  But I think for many of you, friends – some very familiar faces here – it will not replace the work of the people, the work that every single one of us has, has been doing, will continue doing, and must continue doing.

To our friends in the media, you do an incredible job of reporting, sometimes at great risk to yourselves, when you see problems in human rights, when you see areas for improvement.  And I think that work must continue.  And every time we see a journalist who is a victim of human rights abuses – we all suffer.  Our freedom and our freedom of expression is directly, personally attacked.  I call on all of you in the media to continue doing your work to report, responsibly, thoroughly, and accurately, and to hold people accountable. 

And I commend religious leaders, not only for the wonderful role they play from their pulpits, but for the role they play in creating peace and human dignity and setting a climate in which human dignity and the rights of people continue to be put first. 

I appreciate very much the work that many of you do, our friends who are community activists -- NGO’s --  people  who work tirelessly to look for ways to improve,  to do more than just call attention to a problem because that is satisfying but doesn’t give us solutions.   I commend the many community activists and NGO leaders who look for ways to solve these problems, the ways to strengthen and increase the many institutions that can help protect human rights and human dignity in the country. 

I appreciate the work of labor unions and the work of union activists for creating the kind of climate in which the rights of workers are protected -- working with businesses, working together, as President Obama says, to build solutions, to seek a better life.   

I commend of course, all of the many partners.  I’m proud that the United States and the Asia Foundation and many other countries are part of this effort.  This is a global challenge, it is a world in which we have to work every day to ensure human dignity and ensure the rights.  You heard President Obama in his inaugural speech.  He said America will defend.  We will be there -- for peace-loving people and people who seek a life of dignity.  And I know many other nations around the world feel similarly.  We must continue to work together.   These are tough issues.  There is also a difficult and complicated balance between those who uphold security and peace, and yet the extraordinary protection that must be accorded to those accused and accusers, to see that all of those who are under trial receive all the same rights as those who accuse them; to see that our security and law enforcement have the tools they need, the legal understanding, the skills to collect evidence, that the human rights cases can be examined and prosecuted.

Finally, I call on all of us to work on what I think are some of the most difficult challenges we face, and that is working to help strengthen the judicial institutions.  So that those who are found guilty of human rights violations, of not upholding human dignity, are prosecuted fairly, honestly, transparently -- and rapidly; that cases are brought to a conclusion; that those found responsible can be made to pay the price.  

I think there is much hope.  Chairman De Lima says I don’t think any of us would be here if we didn’t believe that working together, we have made a difference, we do make a difference, and we will make a difference.  But it will require all of us:  people from every sector; the government officials who work on this; the private sector; the business community; certainly law enforcement and military security.  We’ll all have to be completely and totally committed, and understand that the foundation of our democracy is respect for the people who make up those democracies.   And that their human rights and their human dignity is what make their country strong.

This is an extraordinary nation, the Philippines – filled with incredibly talented people, the global force,   the global Filipino, sought-after in the world.  And I think our great responsibility is to make sure those people can realize their potential, that they live a life that is safe and free, and know that they can be free to pursue their dreams without fear of undue process, without people who will rob them of their dignity.

So let me congratulate all of you who work hard in this place on this issue, whether you have a high-profile job of doing it, or whether you’re one of the many talented people who manage the database every single day.  And let me encourage you not to stop, to share with Chairman De Lima the hope that we have the chance every single day to make things better, and that we will succeed.

Congratulations to all of you for the work you do and the work you will continue to do and thank you for letting us be a part of that.  Maraming salamat po!