Philippines Among Worst Performers In Global Human Rights Index

The Philippines was cited among the world’s worst human rights performers after receiving poor marks in both quality of life and protection from state abuses, the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) 2026 said on Thursday, June 25.

According to the New Zealand-based rights tracker, the country’s economic and social rights situation may have deteriorated significantly due to the effects of the economic crisis, war, political violence and natural disasters.

The HRMI gave the Philippines a score of 74.9 percent on quality of life based on its income-adjusted benchmark, which measures access to food, education, health care, housing and work.

Under the global best benchmark, the country received a score of 72.5 percent.

“Compared with the other countries in Southeast Asia, the Philippines is performing worse than average on Quality of Life rights,” it said.

The report also flagged the country’s performance in civil and political rights.

With an overall score of 4.6 out of 10, HRMI said Filipinos have not been safe from arbitrary arrest, forced disappearance, extrajudicial execution, torture and ill-treatment.

Meanwhile, the country scored 5.4 out of 10 on empowerment, indicating that many Filipinos are not fully enjoying civil liberties and political freedoms.

Among specific rights, freedom of assembly and association received the lowest score at 4.3, followed by freedom of speech at 5.4, democratic rights at 7.0 and freedom of religion and belief at 7.9.

The Philippines was among more than 50 countries included in HRMI’s inaugural dataset, alongside Argentina, Burkina Faso, North Korea, the Republic of the Congo, South Africa and Zambia.

The HRMI 2026 used a multilingual expert survey to assess countries’ civil and political rights, while the Social and Economic Rights Fulfillment Index methodology was used to measure economic and social rights outcomes.