MANILA — The Philippine government must provide full reparation and issue an apology to Filipino victims of sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II, the Commission on Human Rights said Tuesday.

A United Nations committee found last week that the so-called Filipino comfort women had faced "continuous discrimination" due to the government's failure to provide reparations, social support and recognition equal to the harm they had suffered.

Manila is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which is known as the international bill of rights of women.

"As a signatory to the treaty, the Philippines is obliged to comply in good faith with the findings of the committee," lawyer Twyla Rubin told ANC's "Rundown".

"Although these are considered as views and recommendatory to the government, there is an expectation in the international community that the government will seriously address and take action on these views of the committee," added Rubin, chief of CHR's gender equality and women's human rights center.

In an earlier statement, the CHR said the government must provide the victims "full reparation, including recognition and redress, an official apology, and material and moral damages" proportionate to the physical, psychological, and material damage suffered by them and the gravity of the violation of their rights experienced.

• UN: Philippines failed to provide reparation for WWII 'comfort women' victimized by Japanese Army

Twenty-four women from the Malaya Lolas (Free Grandmothers) group filed a complaint with the UN committee in 2019, claiming the Philippines had not backed their claims against Japan for compensation.

The committee found the women did not receive the same benefits or services as male war veterans.

The UN committee's decision, though not binding, was "very significant," said Joel Butuyan, chairman of the Center for International Law in Manila, which represented the women.

"We cannot actually force the Philippine government to comply, but we're going to go to the offices concerned and present to them that this is a moral obligation at the very least," Butuyan told AFP Friday.

The number of Philippine women forced into sexual slavery during Japan's 1942-45 occupation of the archipelago nation is believed to be in the hundreds.

Japanese leaders have over the decades offered apologies and compensation money to victims, albeit deliberately sourced from the private sector rather than the government.

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— With a report from Agence France-Presse