PARAÑAQUE City Rep. Joy Myra Tambunting filed a measure that will institutionalize human rights as a separate and specialized subject in basic and higher education.

House Bill 9284 or the proposed Human Rights Education Act seeks to oblige the Commission on Human Rights to establish a program to enhance respect for human rights.

Tambunting said that considering the numerous accounts of human rights violations, it is only apt that the State introduce a measure to protect citizens from abuses.

The measure seeks to deepen the Human Rights Education and go beyond the appreciation level through the institutionalization of HRE as a separate and specialized subject in the curricula of basic and higher education.

House Bill 9284 mandates the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education to identify international human rights education, standards and best practices for basic and higher education.

DepEd and CHED, in consultation with the Commission on Human Rights, shall formulate the corresponding curricula and the course programs for human rights studies.

“As an integral part of our Constitution, human rights is a concept that all Filipinos must learn and practice if we are to survive as a modern democracy,” Tambunting said.