A/HRC/45/36 28. Philippines 95. During the reporting period, multiple statements were delivered by Government officials regarding civil society actors engaging with the Human Rights Council on the situation in the Philippines. During the High-level Segment and other sessions of the 43rd session in March 2020, officials made statements that some human rights defenders who support the Council’s attention to the situation in the Philippines are terrorists or are associated with, or supporting, terrorist groups, including the NGO Karapatan (see Annex II). In their statements, Government officials accused civil society actors of “masquerading as defenders of human rights,” of channelling “funding support (…) towards actors professing terrorism,” and serving “hidden agendas of deceit and violence on the ground.”69 96. It was reported to OHCHR that, on 27 June 2019, during an informal consultation on a Human Rights Council resolution on the situation in the Philippines (res 41/2), a current member of CEDAW associated with the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines took the floor to speak as a “human rights defender from the Philippines.” The CEDAW member addressed civil society representatives from the Philippines who had come to the Council as “treacherous,” and urged them to “behave in a proper way.” She referred to a lack of accountability on the part of those sharing and feeding information, and the lack of sanctions against those who criticize human rights without evidence. On 2 July 2019, the incident was brought to the attention of the CEDAW Chairperson, who addressed it internally, and recalled the Addis Ababa guidelines on independence and impartiality of treaty body members in her closing remarks of the 73rd session. 70 97. On 11 July 2019, the Human Rights Council called upon the Government to cooperate with OHCHR and the mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, including by facilitating country visits and preventing and refraining from all acts of intimidation or retaliation (A/HRC/RES/41/2, para. 2). The High Commissioner, in a report prepared following a request from the Council, called on the Government to ensure there are no reprisals against those persons and entities which engaged with OHCHR for the report (A/HRC/44/22, para. 87(d)(ii)). 98. The High Commissioner stated that, for decades now, “red-tagging” or labelling individuals and groups as communists or terrorists has been a persistent and powerful threat to civil society and freedom of expression (A/HRC/44/22, paras. 49, 51), which has been addressed in previous reports of the Secretary-General in relation to civil society and indigenous peoples’ cooperation with the UN (A/HRC/42/30, Annex II, paras. 81–84; A/HRC/39/41, para. 62 and Annex I, paras. 86–89).71 69 70 71 http://webtv.un.org/search/id-sr-on-cultural-rights-18th-meeting-43rd-regular-session-human-rightscouncil-/6138316455001/?term=&lan=english&cat=Regular%2043rd%20session&sort=date&page= 5#player http://webtv.un.org/search/id-sr-on-human-rights-defenders-18th-meeting-43rd-regularsession-human-rights-council-/6138318888001/?term=&lan=english&cat=Regular% 2043rd%20session&sort=date&page=5#player; http://webtv.un.org/search/id-sr-on-counteringterrorism-19th-meeting-43rd-regular-session-human-rights-council/6138504413001/?term=& lan=english&cat=Regular%2043rd%20session&sort=date&page=5#player , http://webtv.un.org/search/item3-general-debate-contd-24th-meeting-43rd-regular-session-humanrights-council/6139744985001/?term=&lan=english&cat=Regular%2043rd%20session&sort= date&page=4#player , http://webtv.un.org/search/item4-general-debate-contd-27th-meeting-43rdregular-session-human-rights-council/6140216917001/?term=&lan=english&cat=regular%2043rd% 20session&sort=date&page=3#player; http://webtv.un.org/search/-id-sr-on-minority-issues-29thmeeting-43rd-regular-session-human-rights-council/6140554348001/?term=&lan=english& cat=Regular%2043rd%20session&sort=date&page=2#player , http://webtv.un.org/search/philippineshigh-level-segment-7th-meeting-43rd-regular-session-human-rights-council/6136070359001/?term=43rd%20regular%20session%20human%20rights%20council&lan=English &cat=Meetings%2FEvents&sort=date&page=8. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx? symbolno=INT%2fCEDAW%2fOCR%2f73%2f28620&Lang=en, para. 12. OHCHR, “Philippines: UN report details widespread human rights violations and persistent impunity,” (4 June 2020), https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25924&LangID=E. 39