Healthcare workers stress link between 'freedom of expression,' 'health'

Healthcare workers stressed on Wednesday, 24 January, the critical link between "freedom of expression" and "health" during the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom and opinion and expression Irene Khan's official visit to the country.

Dr. Edelina dela Paz, chairperson of the Health Alliance for Democracy, in her meeting with Khan, expressed how the relationship of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the right to health affect health outcomes.

"Without the guarantee of holding and expressing opinion in a democratic society, the role of community health workers and health workers in hospitals in easing the pain and suffering, protecting the sick and distressed, and being a source of credible information is placed at an immense risk," Dela Paz said.

HEAD, Alliance of Health Workers, Coalition for People's Right to Health, and Council for Health and Development highlighted concerns about the militaristic approach during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"To date, there is no acknowledgment from the Duterte and Marcos Jr. administrations to the violations committed as a result of the militarist approach to the pandemic which repressed the people's right to know and the right to express," Dela Paz added.

The groups also called for the abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, rescind the Anti-Terror Law, remove the terrorist designation of Dr. Maria Natividad Castro, and investigate as well as ensure accountability for human rights violations against doctors and healthcare workers.

The groups said they also shared a report with Khan, providing information on the correlation between the repression of freedom of opinion and expression and the right to health.

Khan arrived in the Philippines on Monday to assess the government's human rights mechanism, particularly on the freedom of opinion and expression.