12 December 2003- The Philippines again made its presence felt in the United Nations with the election of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Jose S. Brillantes to the UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas F. Ople Announced that Undersecretary  Brillantes was elected along with nine candidates during the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families at the UN Headquarters in New York.

As he congratulated Undersecretary Brillantes for his latest achievement, Secretary Ople confidently said that given “the impeccable record of performance of Undersecretary Brillantes, there was never doubt in my mind that he’ll put yet another feather in our cap.”

A former labor secretary, Brillantes presently heads the Office of Migrant Workers Affairs at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila which is in charge of representing and upholding the rights and welfare of more than 7.2 million overseas Filipino workers.

The UN victory of Brillantes, former Philippine ambassador to Malaysia, followed the recent election of the Philippines to a fourth consecutive term as member of the Council of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) based in London,

In October, the Philippines was elected to a two-year non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

Secretary Ople said that aside from the Philippines, the other countries that were elected members of the committee were Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Morocco, Sri Lanka and Uganda.

The Convention, which seeks to provide guarantees on equal protection and non-discrimination for migrant workers and their families was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 18 December 1990 and came into force on 01 July 2003.

The Convention called for the creation of a 10-member committee that will consider reports by States Parties on their fulfillment of its provisions, such as on compliance with judicial, legislative and administrative requirements. Twenty-four countries, including the Philippines, have submitted their instruments of ratification to the UN. END