National Inquiry on the Impact of Climate Change
on the Human Rights of the Filipino People
27 March 2018
PRESS RELEASE
CHR to conduct first hearing investigating possible contribution of carbon to climate
change and its impact on human rights
QUEZON CITY—The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is set to proceed with its formal
inquiry hearing starting Tuesday, 27 March 2018, as a response to a petition seeking to
investigate so-called “carbon majors” for allegedly contributing to climate change and its
impact on the rights of the Filipino people.
“The inquiry asks if climate change impacts human rights and, if so, whether ‘carbon majors’
have a responsibility for it,” said Commissioner Roberto Eugenio T. Cadiz, who chairs the said
national inquiry.
The petition was filed by typhoon victims, human rights groups, and concerned citizens before
the CHR, seeking to frame climate change as a human rights issue.
Carbon major companies are producers of oil, natural gas, coal and cement. Most of them are
non-state, transnational entities.
“The Commission, mindful of its general mandate to uphold human rights in the Philippines,
accepted the petition as the Constitution directs it to investigate and monitor all matters
concerning the human rights of the Filipino people,” Commissioner Cadiz added.
The inquiry, fully entitled as “National Inquiry on the Impact of Climate Change on the Rights
of the Filipino People and the Responsibility therefor, if any, of the ‘Carbon Majors,’” also
seeks to promote the notion that businesses have an obligation to respect human rights, as
enunciated under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Commissioner Cadiz, however, clarified that the Commission fully recognizes the principle of
territoriality in regard to the exercise of jurisdiction over any state or party and does not attempt
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