Photos: PoliticalArena.com

A month into the campaign, Amnesty International today sent a clarion call to the candidates for president in the May 10, 2010 elections – make human rights a priority – especially in the first 100 days of the country’s new leader who will replace President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The group launched its Human Rights Agenda today at historic Plaza Miranda in downtown Manila.

Among others, Amnesty International’s recommendations include: the issuance of an executive order stating the next president’s commitment  to end extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances; review of the counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya 2, the revocation of Executive Order 546 authorizing the use of militias in counter-insurgency operations; the disarming and disbandment of all private armies; declaration as a priority measure the bill granting a charter to the Commission on Human Rights; and the ratification the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Human rights violations, including a long list of political killings and abductions, have marked the record of the Arroyo administration.

In a public statement issued on the day the official campaign period started last week, Amnesty asked the presidential candidates to consider taking three steps to help address human rights concerns:

1. Revoking President Arroyo’s Executive Order 546 and ensuring accountability of state-sponsored militias and paramilitary groups such as those behind the gruesome Nov. 23 Ampatuan massacre in Maguindanao.
2. Form a presidential commission on extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
3. Implement the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

Read the Amnesty statement here.