A/HRC/8/52 page 161 hospitals, also provided holistic, gender-responsive health care to women survivors. Legislative measures have been proposed to the Philippine legislature to further strengthen laws on the promotion and protection of the human rights of women and children. 464. With respect to trafficking, it was noted that the Philippines would continue combating trafficking in human beings at the national level and would sustain its leading role at the international level in that matter. The Philippines welcomed the cooperation of all nations in that major endeavour and trafficking would be among the issues taken up at the Second Global Forum on Migration and Development, which the country would be hosting in Manila in September. It had also called for the extension of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons and proposed that gender and age-sensitive approaches be included in the conduct of the mandate. It fully supported the extension of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and called on more countries to join the International Convention on the Promotion of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. 465. With respect to extrajudicial killings, the Philippines was ensuring that members of security forces were trained on human rights and on their responsibility to protect human rights defenders. Human rights offices have already been institutionalized in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police. Among other functions, those offices were to receive and act on reports or complaints against military or police personnel. They also handled human rights education, training, capacity-building and advocacy. The Philippines did not engage in or encourage torture or extrajudicial killings of any kind, and would continue to take resolute and concrete steps to address allegations of extrajudicial killings and measures would follow the rule of law and due process. Torture was prohibited by the Constitution and was a criminal act punishable under the revised Penal Code. 466. The Philippines submitted its latest report to the Committee against Torture in January 2008 and would endeavour to submit its reports regularly to the various treaty bodies. The Philippines also signed and was in the process of ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. 467. With respect to economic and social rights, the Philippines would be pleased to share with other countries its experience in the area of justiciability of economic and social rights, particularly in the field of labour rights. In keeping with the Constitution and international standards, the Philippine Labour Code provides a legal mechanism to address concerns on labour standards and labour relations, including the right of workers to join associations or unions, the right to strike and to collectively negotiate agreements, and inter-union and intra-union conflict disputes. Appeals against decisions on labour cases may be elevated to the Secretary of Labour. A petition for review may be filed with the Supreme Court to set aside the decision of the Secretary of Labour on the ground of serious abuse of discretion amounting to lack of jurisdiction. Conciliation and mediation mechanisms were also provided for in the Labour Code. The Philippines was actively meeting the basic needs of the poor and other vulnerable groups and was committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The Medium-Term Philippines Development Plan, reiterating the overreaching goal of fighting poverty and hunger and improving basic social services, including health and education, has just been updated. Besides investing in infrastructure and agriculture productivity, the Philippines is instituting the Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Plan. The implementation of following initiatives

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