POLICE and military officials in Central Luzon want to issue mandatory IDs to the region’s 26,000 Muslims as a way to flush out terrorists, in a move that a human rights group condemned Thursday as discriminatory. Aaron Aquino said the ID can help local Muslim communities identify suspicious individuals so they could be reported to the authorities. Military and police officials said the practice of issuing IDs is being successfully implemented in Paniqui, Tarlac. But Human Rights Watch said the ID system would discriminate against Muslims based on religion, which is prohibited by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other human rights treaties to which the Philippines is a party. “The IDs could also violate the rights to equal protection of the law, freedom of movement, and other basic rights,” said Carlos Conde, Philippine researcher for Human Rights Watch.

Source: The Standard July 06, 2017 15:56 UTC