Member organization: Karapatan

KARAPATAN says GMA government not complying with UN Convention against Torture

The human rights group KARAPATAN said that the Arroyo government is not complying, and is in fact violating the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.  The said convention was entered into force on 26 June 1987 and ratified by the Philippine government on October 23, 1987. KARAPATAN, a human …

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Trillanes probe asked to open safehouses, secret detention places

The Philippine human rights alliance KARAPATAN welcomed the planned probe on extrajudicial killings of former soldier and now senator-elect Antonio Trillanes. KARAPATAN Secretary General Marie Hilao-Enriquez said, “We laud Senator Trillanes for this move to put the Arroyo administration to task for the unabated extrajudicial killings.” KARAPATAN likewise welcomes the pronouncements made by top anti-Arroyo …

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Dutch envoy insults victims by calling PPT a kangaroo court

"It’s such a shame that the Dutch ambassador dismissed an international juridical body as a kangaroo court.  He had just faulted victims for filing their complaints at the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT)." This was the statement of the Philippine human rights group Karapatan after Dutch Ambassador Robert Vornis said that the Permanent People’s Tribunal is …

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Filipino human right advocates testifying at U.S. Senate hearing on killings in RP

Three Filipino human rights advocates are scheduled to testify at a hearing at the US Senate, which was called by Senator Barbara Boxer (Democrat-California), to find ways to end the violence that has claimed the lives of 836 people since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed the Presidency in 2001. The Subcommittee on East Asian and …

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Rights group score troops in Cagayan Valley for hampering work of human rights mission

Human rights groups composed of 49 members and volunteers of Karapatan, Taripnong, KAMP and the Children’s Rehabilitation Center, with an Australian volunteer, complained of harassment by government troops in Cagayan Valley.  The national fact-finding and relief mission was in response to the request to investigate military abuses in the province and to extend assistance to …

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End policy on civilian killings before victims can be in courts without fear – Karapatan

End the state policy on civilian killings before victims can be in courts without fear. Thus said the human rights group Karapatan in the wake of a Supreme Court order to designate special courts that will try cases of extrajudicial killings. The rights campaigners expressed that the special courts scheme is just a way of …

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UN Rapporteur on arbitrary executions visits the Philippines: rights and victims’ organizations express hope

“We welcome Mr. Philip Alston’s visit with optimism,” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Secretary General of the human rights alliance KARAPATAN on the arrival of United Nations Special Rapporteur (SR) on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions. Enriquez says “it is high-time that the UN Special Rapporteur probes the interminable arbitrary executions under the Arroyo government.”

`Melo did not get to the bottom of killings’ – KARAPATAN

The Melo Commission turned a blind eye on the glaring fact that the extrajudicial killings under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration are a matter of state policy.  It did not get to the bottom of the nationwide, systematic extrajudicial killings that is so rampant, even the international community is alarmed.