The Wisconsin Gazette of 15 April 2014 carries a good summary of a major report by Global Witnessthat shows that killings of human rights defenders protecting environmental and land rights increased sharply in the last decade due to the intensification of competition for natural resources. The report “Deadly Environment” highlights a severe shortage of information or monitoring of the problem.
“It has never been more important to protect the environment, and it has never been more deadly,” said Oliver Courtney of Global Witness. “There can be few starker or more obvious symptoms of the global environmental crisis than a dramatic upturn in killings of ordinary people defending rights to their land or environment. Yet this rapidly worsening problem is going largely unnoticed, and those responsible almost always get away with it. We hope our findings will act as the wake-up call that national governments and the international community clearly need.”
Key findings in “Deadly Environment”:
• At least 908 people were killed in 35 countries protecting rights to land and the environment between 2002 and 2013, with the death rate rising in the last four years to an average of two activists a week. Read the rest of this entry »
In the weekly round up of human rights news the Asian Human Rights Commission [AHRC] covers this week (25 February 2014) the following topics:
Pakistan’s long march meets further challenges
Disguised police officers in Sri Lanka try to disrupt protest
10th anniversary of torture victim Maina Sunuwar’s death
Extrajudicial killing in broad daylight in Bangladesh
The ALRC makes 17 written submissions on human rights issues in Asia to the UN
Pakistani social activist is murdered
Voices of survivors: this week from the Philippines.
It is remarkable and promising that a small regional NGO is able to keep this up, paving the way for further such developments in the future. See also my end-of-year post:
On 7 December 2013, Satur C. Ocampo wrote in the Philippine Star a remarkable tribute to a Swiss woman, Alba Viotto, who died recently. After a short context of the human rights scene in his country, he then describes the work of a Swiss human rights defender that most of us will never have heard of. Read the rest of this entry »
I remember from my visit to the Philippines in the early 80s that the nuns were extraordinarily active in the area of human rights (that was under Marcos). I was reminded of this when I saw the Bulalat report of 13 September that a long-time lay worker of a Catholic-run organization was arrested by elements of the Philippine Army on 8 September and the fierce reaction by Sister Somogod.
The UK government recently launched an Action Plan on Business and Human Rightsby Vince Cable and William Hague.
On 5 September the CORE Coalition, whose members include Amnesty International, Oxfam, CAFOD and War on Want, supported by the Trades Union Congress, share the plan’s clear expectation that UK companies respect human rights throughout their global operations and supply chains, but question whether the governments proposals will be sufficient to reduce corporate abuses. CORE calls on the government to take effective steps to ensure companies respect human rights. The plan builds on the government’s commitment to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, agreed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011. The principles set out what states need to do to protect people from corporate human rights abuses and the actions that businesses should take to respect human rights. “While it’s positive that the plan sets out clear expectations for UK companies to respect human rights wherever they operate and explicitly applies to businesses’ supply chains in the UK and overseas, there’s little clarity on how the government’s approach will require companies with the worst human rights records to change their behaviour. Sharing good practice and offering guidance for businesses are important but are not enough on their own,” said Marilyn Croser, Coordinator of the CORE Coalition. Anne Lindsay, CAFOD’s Lead Analyst on the Private Sector said: “For local communities in countries such as Colombia, Peru and the Philippines, the key question is, will this action plan prevent abuses of human rights by companies or just maintain the status quo? We welcome the references to protection of human rights defenders and investment agreements for example, but these principles need to be linked to a much more comprehensive set of follow up actions.” Oxfam’s Robert Nash, Private Sector Policy Adviser added: “This is a welcome signal to businesses that corporate abuses must be tackled. However, plans must go further to strengthen protection for vulnerable communities and the means for them to seek redress. This includes identifying and addressing failures on vital issues like the governance of land, transparency and accountability of investments, human rights requirements and empowering women, who are often the most at risk yet the most likely to be excluded from having their voices heard.” The absence of clear commitments to improve access to justice for victims of corporate human rights abuse overseas and the reliance on voluntary corporate self-governance to ensure businesses respect for human rights is of particular concern to CORE and its member organisations. Murray Worthy, Senior Economic Justice Campaigner at War on Want commented: “This plan places the burden of responsibility for businesses’ respect for human rights in the hands of the companies responsible for violations of human rights. Such voluntary self-regulation has been found wanting for years. It failed to prevent the deaths through negligence of over 1,100 Bangladeshi garment workers in the Rana Plaza disaster earlier this year. Now the government wants to extend this model so that even private military and security companies become self-regulating. The government needs to be more rigorous in preventing human rights abuses by UK companies.” Meanwhile, Owen Tudor, Head of the TUC’s European Union and International Relations Department, said: “Global businesses mustn’t be allowed to avoid their ethical duties, and governments must work with unions and campaigners to hold them to account… The UN and the ILO have set international standards for corporate behaviour and this action plan is a key element in making sure multi-nationals meet those standards. Globalisation has let too many businesses undercut livelihoods at home by exploiting people abroad. Unions will seek to build on this action plan but won’t hesitate to demand stronger action if it is needed.”
Yesterday I had a post “Philippines Chief Human Rights Defender, Rosales, asked to resign for ‘incompetence’”. In reaction I received from Lawyers for Lawyers (L4L) an update on the continued pressure on ‘opposition lawyers’ who are labeled as “enemies of the state”. The Dutch foundation Lawyers for Lawyers warns in an open letter to Read the rest of this entry »
The Business Mirror in the Philippines published on Monday 29 July 2013 a piece quoting the human-rights group Karapatan which asked the Chair of the Commission on Human Rights, Loretta Ann Rosales, to step down for allegedly failing to fulfill the mandate of her office. The group said that instead of doing her job as the country’s chief human-rights defender, Read the rest of this entry »
UNIDENTIFIED GUNMEN abducted two Moro filmmakers who were working on an independent film project in troubled Sulu province in the Southern Philippines over the weekend. Read the rest of this entry »
Karl Ombion, writing for Bulatlat.com, reports that in a court hearing on 18 April 2013 at RTC Branch 55, in Himamaylan City, Adjutant General Alexis Gopico and Lt. Col Ricardo B Bayhon positively identified the two suspects in the brutal murder of Philippine human rights defender Benjamin Bayles as military enlisted men. Edre Olalia, legal counsel of the victim’s family, and Secretary General of National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), confirmed this report. Bayles was murdered 14 June 2010 by two suspects who claimed to be Roger Bajon and Ronnie Caurino when they were captured by Himamaylan police operatives hours after the incident. Olalia said “the confirmation, positive identification and specific personal pinpointing of the killers of activist Benjamen Bayles by top army officials as enlisted personnel under their command is a welcome development and a high point in making perpetrators of extra judicial killings accountable.” This is ultimately a product of public vigilance and pressure by human rights defenders aided also by conscientious legal work, Olalia stressed, but it remains to be seen if this leads to a deeper investigation, determination of other guilty parties, including possibly, superior officers. The accused who are lowly private first class personnel maybe sacrificial dispensable small fry to stop the investigation and let masterminds escape identification and prosecution.”“As in other cases, like that of Jonas Burgos, extra judicial killings and enforced disappearances and other rights violations, there is no closure until there is full justice for the victims,” Olalia concluded.
Two lawmakers are pushing for a law (House Bill 5379), ‘the Human Rights Defenders Act’, which aims to guarantee the rights of human rights defenders. The provisions are:
1 Right to promote and protect human rights
2 Right to information about human rights
3 Right to develop and advocate human rights ideas
4 Right to participate in public affairs
5 Right to access to human rights violations victims and, if necessary, provide legal assistance or facilitate the provision of the same
6 Right to unhindered access to communication with human rights bodies.
7 Right to refuse to violate human rights
8 Right to participate in activities against human rights violations
9 Right to solicit, receive and utilize resources
10 Right to establish a sanctuary to human rights victims
11 Right to file an action involving human rights violations – human rights organizations as complainants and, finally
12 Right to access documents of government units and personnel, paramilitary units and personnel, and military affiliate and government assets.
While some of the language is specifically cut towards the situation in the Philippines, the list is an interesting blueprint for other situations.
This proposal comes in the context of a recent (preliminary) report by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders which concluded: “There is compelling evidence that human rights defenders, in particular those advocating for land and environmental rights, are under serious threat, are constantly vilified, intimidated and ‘terrorized.”
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 