International

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The recent killings of peasant rights advocate and peace talks consultant Randall Echanis, human right defender Zara Alvarez, and Bayan Muna regional coordinator Jory Porquia have highlighted the increasing use of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) against activists, political dissenters and members of the opposition.

We, the undersigned 27 civil society organisations, are deeply concerned with the introduction of the National Security Law in Hong Kong. We call on the Governments of China and Hong Kong to repeal this law, which severely clamps down on the rights of the Hong Kong people.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The resolution tabled by Iceland and supported by many States at the current 41st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council to comprehensively and methodically address the horrendous extrajudicial killings and the plethora of rights violations in the Philippines is a highly significant international initiative.

 

“The United States government’s rhetoric on human rights puts them at a pedestal for hypocrites. Its overt and covert attacks on oppressed peoples of the world and in the Philippines, mostly exposed through its military funding and poison-laced aid for governments and State fascist machines such as the military and the police, betray their direct role and complicity in abetting violations on people’s rights,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan Secretary General, on the recently released 2016 US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices which includes views on the human rights situation in the Philippines. 

Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom (UK) and activists from Hongkong, Canada and Germany expressed their support for the continuation of the Philippine government peacetalks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), as well as their concern on the continuing violations on people’s rights in the Philippines, in the light of reported political killings of farmers and indigenous peoples.  

Peace and human rights advocates from Japan, Australia, Italy, Ireland, and the United Kingdom have expressed alarm and concern on the recent political killings and arrests in the Philippines, as well as on the declarations of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte on the “cancellation” of the formal peacetalks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. 

Rome, Italy - On the second day of the third round of formal peacetalks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), human rights group Karapatan, through its Secretary General Cristina Palabay, submitted collated reports on violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by State security forces and agents of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) during the period of the GRP unilateral ceasefire from August 21, 2016 to December 31, 2016.