::r"7.1~~~==== -n===r""""' - ===---~,=-~ ==- -- ...,. =:o.d' =~~~-"--"-~"·~~-~~~ Recommendations In view of the foregoing premises, we recommend the following: 1. Considering that complaints of human rights violations involving agricultural workers and indigenous cultural communities as victims are concentrated in Mindanao, we reiterate Guiding Principle No. 7 of the UNGP, which provides: "Because the risk of gross human rights abuses is heightened in conflict-affected areas, States should help ensure that business enterprises operating in those contexts are not involved with such abuses, including by: (a) Engaging at the earliest stage possible with business enterprises to help them identify, prevent and mitigate the human rights-related risks of their activities and business relationships; (b) Providing adequate assistance to business enterprises to ass~ss and address the heightened risks of abuses, paying special attention to both gender-based and sexual violence; (c) Denying access to public support and services for a business enterprise that is involved with gross human rights abuses and refuses to cooperate in addressing the situation; (d) Ensuring that their current policies, legislation, regulations and enforcement measures are effective in addressing the risk of business involvement in gross human rights abuses." 2. In order to strengthen the legal and policy framework that would fully realize the human rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas, the Philippine government must seriously gather the inputs of all stakeholders, such as the agricultural workers, fisherfolks, indigenous peoples, forest dwellers, and agribusiness firms in supporting the passage of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other People Working in Rural Areas. Current laws, policies, and programs of the government pertaining to the agriculture sector indicates that peasants and other people working in rural areas are treated as a class sui generis, such that the current mechanism of obtaining "Free, Prior and Informed Consent" under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (R.A. No. 8371) could be adapted in a new law to protect their human rights. The Magna Carta for Small Farmers (R.A. No. 7607) must be amended to incorporate the respective provisions of the draft Universal Declaration. 3. Philippine laws on environmental impact assessments (P.D. No. 1586) must be reviewed to determine to what extent they are effective to protect and promote human rights of communities where agribusiness activities would be pursued. A law must be enacted to provide for a code of corporate governance based on human rights principles. Human rights obligations of both state and non-state actors must be implemented through mechanisms of corporate governance. 4. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recommended to the Philippines, as part of its concluding observations91 of the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of the country, that it must take steps to progressively develop and apply appropriate indicators on the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights to facilitate the assessment of progress achieved by the State party in the compliance of its obligations under the Covenant for various segments of the population. This recommendation would also refer to the agriculture sector that comprises the poorest among the Filipinos. More so, the Philippines must ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 91 Adopted by the Committee at its fifty-ninth session (19 September- 7 October 2016) 49