Social Justice and Human Rights Flashcards
Sec. 10, Art. II.
The State shall promote social justice in _________________.
all phases of national development
Sec. 1, Art. XIII.
The Congress shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures that protect and enhance the right of all the people to human dignity, reduce social, economic, and political inequalities, and remove cultural inequities by equitably diffusing wealth and political power for the
common good.
To this end, the State shall regulate the acquisition, ownership, use, and disposition of property and its increments.
Sec. 1, Art. XIII.
The Congress shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures that protect and enhance the right of all the people to human dignity, reduce social, economic, and political inequalities, and remove cultural inequities by equitably diffusing wealth and political power for the
common good.
To this end, the State shall regulate the acquisition, ownership, use, and disposition of property and its increments.
Sec. 2, Art. XIII.
The promotion of social justice shall include the commitment to create economic opportunities based on freedom of initiative and self-reliance.
Sec. 2, Art. XIII.
The promotion of social justice shall include the commitment to create economic opportunities based on freedom of initiative and self-reliance.
What is social justice?
Social justice is “neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy,” but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by the State so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at least be approximated.
Social justice means the promotion of the welfare of all the people, the adoption by the Government of measures calculated to insure economic stability of all the competent elements of society, through the maintenance of a proper economic and social equilibrium in the interrelations of the members of the community, constitutionally, through the adoption of measures legally justifiable, or extra-constitutionally, through the exercise of powers underlying the existence of all governments on the time-honored principle of salus populi est suprema lex.
Social justice, therefore, must be founded on the recognition of the necessity of interdependence among divers and diverse units of a society and of the protection that should be equally and evenly extended to all groups as a combined force in our social and economic life, consistent with the fundamental and paramount objective of the state of promoting the health, comfort, and quiet of all persons, and of bringing about “the greatest good to the greatest number”
[Calalang v. Williams, G.R. 47800 (1940)].
What is the requirements for members of the Commission on Human Rights?
The Commission shall be composed of a Chairman and four Members who must be naturalborn citizens of the Philippines and a majority of whom shall be members of the Bar. The term of office and other qualifications and disabilities of the Members of the Commission shall be provided by law.
Sec. 17, Art. XIII.
What are the powers and functions of the Commission of Human Rights?
- Investigate, on its own or on complaint by any party, all forms of human rights violations involving civil and political rights;
- Adopt its operational guidelines and rules of procedure, and cite for contempt for violations thereof in accordance with the Rules of Court;
- Provide appropriate legal measures for the protection of human rights of all persons within the Philippines, as well as Filipinos residing abroad, and provide for preventive measures and legal aid services to the under-privileged whose human rights have been violated or need protection;
- Exercise visitorial powers over jails, prisons, or detention facilities;
- Establish a continuing program of research, education, and information to enhance respect for the primacy of human rights;
- Recommend to Congress effective measures to promote human rights and to provide for compensation to victims of violations of human rights, or their families;
- Monitor the Philippine Government’s compliance with international treaty obligations on human rights;
- Grant immunity from prosecution to any person whose testimony or whose possession of documents or other evidence is necessary or convenient to determine the truth in any investigation conducted by it or under its authority;
- Request the assistance of any department, bureau, office, or agency in the performance of its functions;
- Appoint its officers and employees in accordance with law; and
- Perform such other duties and functions as may be provided by law. [Sec. 18, Art. XIII]
Can the Commission on Human Rights try and decide cases (or hear and determin causes) as courts of justice, or even quasi-judicial bodies do?
NO.
As should at once be observed, only the first of the enumerated powers and functions bears any resemblance to adjudication or adjudgment. The Constitution clearly and categorically grants to the Commission the power to investigate all forms of human rights violations involving civil and political rights. But it cannot try and decide cases (or hear and determine causes) as courts of justice, or even quasi-judicial bodies do. To investigate is not to adjudicate or adjudge. Whether in the popular or the technical sense, these terms have well understood and quite distinct meanings
[Cariño v. CHR, G.R. No. 96681 (1991)].
