Greetings from PAHRA and PhilRights!

Our Human Rights Week celebration for this year, with the theme “Karapatan  para sa Lahat, Hindi Kaunlaran para sa Iilan,” is mainly focused on the economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights violations being perpetrated by the P’noy administration due to its neo-liberal policies and programs.

The Aquino government despite its popularity due to its anti-corruption drive should be made accountable for its questionable silence and bias in favor of business and other entities that violate the rights of marginalized sectors.

Some examples of this would be the PALEA case and the large-scale mining issue.  Pnoy failed to protect workers’ rights when it upheld PAL management’s outsourcing scheme leading to the retrenchment of more than 2,000 regular workers.  Likewise, it failed to protect the rights of indigenous peoples,  small farmers and fisherfolks with the government’s aggressive policy of promoting large-scale mining resulting to numerous abuses.

Thus, as part of the Human Rights week celebration, we are inviting you to a forum on ESC rights justiciability wherein human rights violations, mostly ESC rights cases, will be presented by victims or support groups.  After this, with the help of human rights lawyers, the plenary will discuss possible legal and other means to pursue these cases in particular, and advance ESC rights justiciability in general.

The ESC Rights Justiciability Forum will be held on December 9, 2011, 1:00 to 5:00 pm at Max’s Restaurant in Quezon Memorial Circle. For more information, please contact Rose Trajano at 436-2633 or Bernie Larin at 433-1714.

Thank you very much and we look forward to your positive response.

Sincerely Yours,

Nymia Pimentel Simbulan, Dr. PH                                          Max de Mesa
Executive Director, PhilRights                                                  Chair, PAHRA

Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA)
53-B Maliksi St. Bgy. Pinyahan
Quezon City, Philippines (1100)
Tel/fax (632) 436-26-33
Mobile : 0906-553-1792
E-mail:  pahra@philippinehumanrights.org
pahracampaigns@gmail.com
Fb account: philippinehumanrights