Amnesty International Philippines emphasized a deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines during the last leg of its rolling launch of Amnesty International Report 2025: State of the World’s Human Rights in Manila. Marked by widespread impunity, shrinking civic space, persistent red-tagging of human rights defenders (HRDs) including journalists, indigenous cultural community leaders, and environmental activists, Amnesty International Philippines Acting Director, Jepie Papa, said that these issues are all underscored in the organization’s Human Rights Legislative Agenda for the 20th Congress updated from 2022 national elections following the mid-terms.

Iloilo City – Amnesty International Philippines, during its press conference in Iloilo City on Friday, raised serious concerns over what it calls “multiple burden” faced in the Visayas due to the continuing repression of human rights defenders and worsening climate-related disasters. 

“Red-tagging” – the public vilification of human rights defenders and other targeted groups and individuals as alleged members and clandestine recruiters of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) – continued. This was despite a Supreme Court ruling in May that “red-tagging” threatens a person’s life, liberty and security. UN experts, including the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, made repeated calls on the government to denounce and penalize the practice.

The Trump administration’s anti-rights campaign is turbocharging harmful trends already present, gutting international human rights protections and endangering billions across the planet, Amnesty International warned today upon launching its annual report, The State of the World’s Human Rights.

Responding to President Marcos Jr.’s third State of the Nation’s Address, Amnesty International Philippines Section Director Butch Olano said:

Cagayan de Oro – On the last leg of the launch of its State of the World’s Human Rights 2023/24 Report, Amnesty International celebrates its 63rd anniversary with a press conference in Mindanao on 28 May. The rights group said that in all its years of existence, their annual reports have established one thing – that undermining peoples’ agency to strip them of their dignity is a force entrenched in human rights violations.

Cebu City – Activists and human rights defenders in the Visayas are caught in a very dangerous situation between standing up for human rights and fighting for their lives amid attacks and red-tagging, said Amnesty International Philippines during the Cebu leg of its Amnesty International State of the World’s Human Rights 2023/24 Report rolling launch.

Responding to news that the Office of the President created a “super body to champion human rights”, Amnesty International Philippines Section Director, Butch Olano, said:“AO 22 is a step in the right direction, however, this has always been a go to solution of the Office of the President when push comes to shove. It doesn’t really make any impact in actual human rights cases as we’ve already seen in past administrations. The bleak human rights situation in the country does not need another level of bureaucracy,”

Baguio City – Repression perpetrated by the state led to an escalation in human rights violations in Luzon, Amnesty International Philippines said during a press conference in Baguio City today for the first leg of its State of the World’s Human Rights 2023/24 Annual Report rolling launch.

The world is reaping a harvest of terrifying consequences from escalating conflict and the near breakdown of international law, said Amnesty International as it launched its annual The State of the World’s Human Rights report today, delivering an assessment of human rights in 155 countries.

Although human rights are being gravely undermined in numerous countries across the world, Amnesty International’s supporters and activists have shown that change is always possible. Saving lives, changing laws and protecting human rights – Amnesty International has been busy racking up the wins this year.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 unleashed numerous war crimes, generated a global energy and food crisis and sought to further disrupt a weak multilateral system. It also laid bare the hypocrisy of Western states that reacted forcefully to the Kremlin’s aggression but condoned or were complicit in grave violations committed elsewhere, Amnesty International said as it launched its annual assessment of human rights around the world.