Visiting Queen’s Law from Manila, by way of Manitoba, a postdoctoral researcher is spending part of June at Queen’s to continue her examination of Canadian law – and share her work in return.

The Faculty of Law is pleased to welcome a human rights activist, litigator and law professor with 10 years’ experience this month. Dr. Emily Salcedo, an Associate Professor from De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines is here to continue research on a project titled Expanding the Role of the Philippine Human Rights Commission for the Protection of Gender Equality: Lessons from Canada.

This project is an offshoot of her doctoral dissertation at Indiana University, where she completed a comparative study of protective labour legislation as well as pregnancy and childcare policies across five jurisdictions, including Canada and the Philippines.

A visiting scholar at the University of Manitoba, Dr. Salcedo will be here until Thursday, June 18. She will return to Manitoba in July to finish her research before returning to De La Salle University, where she holds the Anthony P. Lee Professorial Chair in Advanced Business Management, to resume teaching in the fall.

Dr. Salcedo, who is working with Professor Beverley Baines while at Queen’s, says her goal for this current project is to “encourage [the] Philippine Commission on Human Rights to genuinely work for the protection and promotion of women's rights.” Dr. Salcedo hopes to “gather the best practices in Canada and persuade [the Philippine] Commission that we can do the same for the Philippines.”

The Supreme Court of the Philippines has determined that the Commission on Human Rights has only investigatory powers, and may not adjudicate disputes or impose sanctions on offending parties. As Dr. Salcedo notes, this limitation effectively “clips the wings” of the Commission, denying it any credible enforcement powers. Her research seeks to make recommendations for the Philippine Human Rights Commission to adopt aspects of a “Canadian Model”, as exemplified by the Supreme Court of Canada’s jurisprudence upholding “the authority of human rights tribunals in imposing special temporary measures to address systemic discrimination”.

Dr. Salcedo’s doctoral dissertation, Neither a Pedestal Nor a Cage: In Pursuit of Genuine Gender Equality in the Philippine Workplace, will be published in the coming months. It was awarded best dissertation for 2014 at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

On Thursday, June 18, Dr. Salcedo will present the initial findings of her research to students and faculty.