President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo directed the Presidential Human Rights Committee yesterday to begin drafting the country's National Human Rights Action Plan and Program that will “set the roadmap for human rights work for the next five years,” a statement from the Office of the Press Secretary said.

In her speech keynoting the commemoration of Human Rights Week held at the Heroes' Hall in Malacañang, the President urged all participants, stakeholders and sectors to participate in the human rights plan drafting to highlight the “importance we give in the promotion and protection of human rights shared by the entire family of man.”

“The Presidential Human Rights Committee, chaired by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, shall begin activities necessary to bring all stakeholders in consultation for a National Human Rights Action Plan and Program, which will set the roadmap for human rights work for the next five years,” the President said in the statement.

She pointed out that the NHRAPP will contain, among others, steps in furthering the promotion of the rights of children, women and other vulnerable sectors.

She said the team sent by the United Nations is supportive of the NHRAPP while Japan , the United States , Australia and New Zealand “are working with our investigative and security sectors which protect our society from lawless elements.”

“We look forward to hearing soon from the European Union on the kind of assistance it can extend to us,” she added.

The President also reiterated her government's stance in the ongoing peace process in Mindanao and in alleviating poverty, saying the two are “closely intertwined with human rights,” the OPS statement said.

The President has made the Mindanao peace process a top priority of her government's legacy and has even stepped up the process through inter-faith dialogue, economic development and security, the statement also said.*

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