The House of Representatives has already considered this bill more than once. Last time was on July 4, 2022, by Filipino rep. Edcel Lagman under the name of Human Rights Defenders Protection Act House Bill No.77. Currently the bill waits for an approval by both the House of representatives and the Senate.
This draft law is very similar to a previous draft bill proposed to the Senate, the 2018 Act to Promote and Protect the Rights of Human Rights Defenders, containing a definition of HRD identical to the one introduced by the UN Declaration on HRDs outlining the rights and freedoms of HRDs, including the consequences for its violations. Still, the draft bill goes beyond the previous act since it foresees the creation of a Human Rights Defenders Protection Committee in Chapter IV, which would be mechanism for the protection of HRDs.
