PHILIPPINES: Report on International Fair Trial Day 2024 in the Philippines
PHILIPPINES: Report on International Fair Trial Day 2024 in the Philippines
Date of the event: 14 June, 2024
Report date: March, 2025
Description:
On 14 June 2024, around 300 legal professionals, bar association representatives, academics, criminal justice experts, human rights advocates and journalists from around the world gathered online and in person in Manila, the Philippines to participate in the 2024 International Fair Trial Day and Ebru Timtik Award at the University of the Philippines College of Law.
Each year, the IFTD highlights the barriers to a fair trial in a specific country, with a focus on solutions. In 2024, the Philippines was chosen due to persistent reports of serious and widespread fair trial rights violations. Grave flaws in the justice system prevail, including a failure to observe due process guarantees, a lack of independence of the judiciary and corruption.
Against this background, lawyers, judges, prosecutors, journalists and human rights defenders face a range of risks including threats, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and enforced disappearance. Some have even been killed. A climate of impunity,
notably with ineffective and delayed investigations, ensures there is a lack of accountability for these violations.
In 2024, the Ebru Timtik Award was awarded to the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, in the Philippines, for its outstanding legal services and advocacy in defence of access to justice and fair trial rights for all in the Philippines.
The OIAD, as a member of the IFTD steering group, took part in the organisation of the day and was represented by Gonzalo Sáenz.
