Amid killings, attacks, UN experts urge Philippines to protect rights defenders
The UN experts urged the authorities to carry out prompt, impartial
and independent investigations into the growing number of threats and
killings of rights defenders to hold perpetrators to account and to
fight impunity.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Amid reports of killings and death threats against human
rights defenders in the Philippines, two United Nations Special
Rapporteurs on human rights defenders and extrajudicial executions
called on the Philippine government to adopt urgent measures to protect
the life of rights defenders and to ensure they are able to carry out
their important work.
The UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders
defines human rights defenders as those who seek the promotion and
protection of civil and political rights as well as the promotion,
protection and realization of economic, social and cultural rights.
In a statement
posted at its website, the UN experts said that a number of cases have
been reported to them involving death threats and, in the worst of
cases, killings of human rights defenders since the killing of Fr. Fausto Tentorio in Mindanao last year.
Tentorio, a Catholic Italian missionary, was killed inside the
compound of a local Church, October 17 by suspected state agents. Human
rights group Karapatan reported that under the two-year term of
President Benigno Aquino III, there have been 95 of victims of
extrajudicial killings. Recent cases include the murder of Dutch
missionary Willem Geertman and Romualdo Palispis,
chair of Justice and Peace Action Group (JPAG). Karapatan also reported
the killing of Arnolfo Vaflor, a member of an affiliate of the National
Federation of Sugar Workers in Negros Occidental on July 9.
“Many of the cases involve individuals and organizations working to
defend the right to a healthy environment,” said Margaret Sekaggya,
Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders. “Disputes over land rights
and campaigns against mining and dam projects infringing on the rights
of local communities tend to be sensitive, and those defending such
rights are often met with violence.”.... MORE
Source: Bulatlat.com
URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/07/13/amid-killings-attacks-un-experts-urge-philippines-to-protect-rights-defenders/
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