Philippine and international law stipulates that child offenders cannot be sentenced to death or executed. Child offenders are defined in domestic legislation, and in the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which the Philippines is party, as those who are under the age of 18 at the time the crime in question was committed. Despite these provisions, child offenders have been sentenced to death and held on death row among adult offenders. At least seven child offenders, for whom names and dates of birth are known, remain under sentence of death in adult facilities. Amnesty International is gravely concerned this is not only a breach of domestic Philippine law but that it is also a flagrant violation of the Philippines’ commitments under international law. Amnesty International is also concerned that the imposition of the sentences, and the protracted delays in rectifying the sentencing constitute a serious breach of international human rights law. In this report, Amnesty International urges the government of the Philippines to implement a number of recommendations regarding the death penalty and the sentencing of youth offenders, including taking immediate steps to remove the death sentences passed on the seven child offenders.

This report highlights the organization’s key concerns regarding the apprehension and detention of children in the Philippines with primary reference to the main international legal document in this area: the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Amnesty International believes that the Government of the Philippines must take urgent steps to prevent torture and ill-treatment in custody. This report will examine the use of torture through illustrative case studies that focus on particular vulnerable groups. This report concludes with a series of detailed recommendations including the importance of a thorough and effective domestic bill on torture which reflects the provisions of the Convention against Torture.

This report primarily focuses on women in custody in the Philippines who are vulnerable to torture, including rape and sexual abuse. Amnesty International believes that most perpetrators escape prosecution. Amnesty provides a series of recommendations to the authorities to prevent these grave violations of women’s rights.

In this report, Amnesty International uses the case-study of the criminal investigation into the killing of Rolando Abadilla to illustrate how torture and ill-treatment continue in the Philippines despite the existence of a broad array of laws, procedural safeguards and institutions established to protect fundamental human rights.

This paper gives information on developments in the application of the death penalty by lethal injection to September 1999. It looks at the current situation regarding this form of execution in the USA, China, Guatemala, the Philippines and Taiwan. It also examines the response of professional associations, particularly the medical profession, to this issue.

In this open letter to President Estrada, Amnesty International calls on the President to commute Leo Echegaray’s death sentence and to take steps to abolish the death penalty throughout the Philippines.

This paper outlines the debate on, and the introduction and spread of, lethal injection executions, summarizes the current legislation and international practice and presents AI’s opposition to the death penalty irrespective of the method of execution. It includes as appendices extracts of legislation, regulations and practice on the use of lethal injection in the USA, in China, the Philippines and Guatemala.

This document contains some information and recommendations on the Death Penalty which was restored by the Philippines Government in December 1993. The organization urges the President of the Philippines to exercise clemency in the case of those death row prisoners whose sentences have been confirmed by the Supreme Court and to commute their sentences.

This report examines how patterns of “disappearances” emerged within a context of armed conflict and counter-insurgency campaigns. It includes a number of case studies of people who have “disappeared” in the Philippines. Although the cases listed represent only a small proportion of the hundreds of others who have “disappeared” since the early 1970s they form an illustrative testament to the pain of the victims and the prolonged suffering of their families. While recognising the steady decline in the number of “disappearances” as the scale and intensity of armed conflict has waned in recent years, Amnesty International asserts that the truth about the past human rights violations in the Philippines must not be set aside or forgotten.

Since 1988 at least 550 unarmed people have been killed by government or government-backed forces in the Philippines. The killings occur in the context of counter-insurgency measures against armed opposition groups, e. g. the NPA, themselves responsible for human rights abuses. The victims include suspected members of the armed opposition, members of tribal communities, urban poor activists, trade unionists, church workers, human rights lawyers, peasant activists, farmers, women, children and old people. The bodies of some victims bore signs of severe torture. This report addresses the issue of responsibility for the killings, the context of these violations (including killings by armed groups) the problem of impunity and the government’s human rights record.

This document describes a continuing pattern of human rights violations against people involved in the labour movement in the Philippines. Victims have usually been those accused by the authorities of sympathy with the armed insurgents or of being fronts for the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPM) or their armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA). The primary victims of abuses have been members of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU, May First Movement) and the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), affiliated to the KMU. Cases of prominent trade unionists who have been sentenced in trials, the fairness of which is in doubt, are included. They are: Medardo Roda, Elizalde Malaloan and Marlon Luarez; Crispin Beltran, KMU chairman, has been repeatedly arrested.