UN General Assembly
2006

migration and development as an outcome of the High- level Dialogue, provisionally outside the umbrella of the United Nations, to enable the international community to continue the dialogue on important issues relating to migration. My delegation invites Member States to accede to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families in order to demonstrate and reaffirm the universality of human rights. For my country and its people, human rights and the sanctity of the life of the individual are of paramount value. For my Government, the protection of human life is a sacred commitment. Last week, the Philippines renewed that commitment through the signing of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Enshrined in our constitution is powerful language against the death penalty. Three months ago, President Arroyo gave that constitutional mandate further expression when she signed into law Republic Act 9346, which removed the death penalty from our statute books. Such is the value that we assign to life that, in our