The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has asked the Senate to pass its proposed Charter and arm it with the powers and resources to prevent widespread human rights violations.

CHR Chairwoman Leila M. de Lima said the House of Representatives has already approved House Bill 6822 on Sept. 16, 2009 but the Senate Committee on Human Rights and Justice has yet to pass the measure at the committee level.

De Lima revealed that the proposed Charter clarifies the legal and protective measures that the CHR could exercise and sets forth its functions and fiscal autonomy in unequivocal terms.

She added that for years, the CHR has campaigned for the passage of the Charter, which arms it with strengthened investigative powers and quasi-judicial powers.

“There is no better time than now to pass the Charter as it has covered much ground in convincing legislators that the Commission must exercise its constitutional powers to the full extent of laws without being stymied by many interpretations of unspecified or unelaborated concepts such as legal and protective measures," De Lima said.

HB 6822 permits CHR to exercise preventive measures that cover injunction orders that ban anyone from hiding, transferring or torturing any detainee and mandating access by counsel, doctor and relatives to these detainees.

It makes imperative the inspection of detention facilities, secret jails and camps, military installations and detachments in the pursuit of its mandate.

Also prohibited is the transfer of persons deprived of their liberty and in danger of reprisal due to the filing of a complaint in connection with his or her detention, in order to secure safety of his or her person.

Under the Charter, police and military authorities are also enjoined from entering the residences of complainants and conducting searches on their property and belongings.

Lawmen are likewise enjoined from "committing any and all acts that would tend to cause irreparable harm and have the immediate effect of rendering the investigation of the commission moot and academic."

CHR can also order security forces to provide specific protection to victims of human rights violations and it can deputize government offices and private institutions for the purpose of providing protection along with deputizing government and private lawyers as counsels de officio to ensure that the human rights of the victim are not violated.

De Lima said one of the novel concepts of the Charter is the "standby or residual prosecutorial powers" introduced by Senator Chiz Escudero, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Human Rights and Justice, who wants to ensure that human rights violations will be addressed vigorously by the government.

In case authorities would not act or refuse to act, CHR will be mandated by the law to exercise prosecutorial powers.