Section 2Sec./Art. 2

Section 2 of Republic Act No. 9208, as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows:

"Section 2. Declaration of Policy. - It is hereby declared that the State values the dignity of every human person and guarantees the respect of individual rights. In pursuit of this policy, the State shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures and development of programs that will promote human dignity, protect the people from any threat of violence and exploitation, eliminate trafficking in persons, and mitigate pressures for involuntary migration and servitude of persons, not only to support trafficked persons but more importantly, to ensure their recovery, rehabilitation, and reintegration into the mainstream of society in a manner that is culturally-responsive, gender- and age-appropriate, and disability-inclusive.

It shall be a State policy to recognize the equal and inalienable rights and inherent human dignity of all members of the human family, as enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights, United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols to which the Philippines is a party, United Nations Convention on the Protection of Migrant Workers and their Families, United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime Including its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, International Labor Organization Convention No. 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor, the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, and the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, and all other relevant and universally accepted human rights instruments and other international conventions to which the Philippines is a party.

In all actions concerning children, their best interests shall be the paramount consideration."