Karen Gomez Dumpit

For more than 25 years, Hon. Karen Lucia S. Gomez-Dumpit served the Philippines Commission on Human Rights (CHR) through various career posts.

Commissioner Gomez-Dumpit made several breakthroughs by being the first director of the CHR’s Child Rights Center, which she served for nine years. As Child Rights Center director, she engaged with stakeholders on discussions on Juvenile Justice — paving the way for the consolidation of Philippine Action for Youth Offenders GO-NGO coalition. Through Commissioner Gomez-Dumpit’s efforts, in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Council for the Welfare of Children, a number of children were spared from death row through the establishment of minority age. This partnership proceeded and worked towards the passage of Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice Welfare Act.

Commissioner Gomez-Dumpit has also advocated for the rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty, which earned her a Gawad Paglingkod Award from the Catholic Bishops Conference. In her capacity as the focal director for migrant workers, she also worked with civil society organisations to partially lift the deployment ban of overseas Filipino workers to Nigeria.

Commissioner Gomez-Dumpit has been pivotal in the Commission’s engagement with the UN Human Rights Council and Treaty Bodies, which include reporting to the Universal Periodic Review; Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; Convention on the Rights of the Child; and the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Commissioner Gomez-Dumpit graduated from De La Salle University with a degree in AB Communication Arts. She later earned her Master in Public Management at the Development Academy of the Philippines. She also obtained a Master of Science in Human Rights degree, as a British Chevening Scholar, at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Ms Dumpit is an alumna of the DTP Capacity Building Program on Human Rights and Migrant Workers in the Asia-Pacific held in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia in 2006. She has acted as a valued trainer in subsequent DTP programs.