Honoring women human rights defenders (HRDs) and uniting with women HRDs against impunity
March 8, 2013

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) salutes and honors all women who defend human dignity – their own and that of others, who assert women’s rights as human rights and who fight to end impunity against women as persons and against their struggles.

We particularly salute and honor on this day all women who made the supreme sacrifice with their lives in their struggles for justice and for human rights, not only for their own gender but for the communities wherein they live and for the country as a whole. The extrajudicial killing of a woman human rights defender is a concern of and a threat to all human rights defenders.

The recent killing of Cristina Jose, a kagawad (Barangay Councilor) of Barangay Binondo, Baganga, Davao City, raises further alarm and a red flag denoting urgent warning to all human rights defenders (HRDs) that calling attention to and protesting against the violations of the State obligations of respecting, protecting and fulfilling its constituents’ human rights either by commission or by omission can provoke a death-dealing action on one’s own life.

Immediately prior to Jose’s assassination last March 4, she was concerned with her Barangay constituents’ urgent need for daily food due to the devastation wrought by Typhoon Pablo on the communities sources of subsistence and capabilities for livelihood. Both the local government and local branches of national offices prioritized other concerns and consequent actions that eroded due diligence and curtailed significantly the availability and accessibility to the people’s right to adequate food. Willful delays and the lack of transparency resulting in the adverse effects on the health of vulnerable persons in the communities make particular government officials and offices accountable for the violations. These delays and effects breach core elements of human rights.

Silence on the part of government, both national and local, on the killing of Cristina will further encourage similar retaliations on other just protests.

In reality, the premeditated murder of Mrs. Cristina Jose is a consequent of the earlier impunity against other women human rights defenders. It is the impunity that perpetuates human rights violations against which women as sisters and mothers and their families in different sectoral struggles.

It is the impunity that pervades areas where government and security forces allow and encourage development aggression to sacrifice lands and lives, like that of Juvy Capion and her two children who were massacred in Kiblawan, Davao del Sur, last October 18, 2012 to allow, at that time without an Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC), the Sagittarius Mining Incorporated (SMI) to operate. The Capion family protested against the mining company’s forced and armed intrusion into the B’laan people’s ancestral land. PAHRA condemns Juvy and her children’s deaths as well as demands speedy investigation so that justice may be meted on the military perpetrators.

It is the impunity that is spawned from the struggle of agrarian reform lands that Kathy Alcantara, woman leader-organizer of the Pambansang Kilusan ng Makabayang Magbubukid (PKMM)- [National Movement of Nationalist Farmers],fought against and was killed by unindentified men mid-morning of December 5,2006 in Brgy. Gabon, Abucay, Bataan in Central Luzon. PAHRA salutes Kathy and her kind.

It is the impunity that has embedded itself with armed hacienda security guards in Negros Occidental that Task Force Mapalad members (TFM) Edna Sobrecaray, Charie and Estrellita Celes, Visitacion Garay, and Sharon Macapal successfully challenged. Their courage had legally gained them their lands as well as inspired other women to follow their path. PAHRA stands with Edna and all the women with her.

PAHRA will continue to struggle alongside women against unjust structures, systems and institutions which are obstacles to the full implementation of fundamental freedoms and human rights. PAHRA calls on all human rights defenders to fight with women and eliminate impunity so as to obtain dignity and justice for us all.

Against the unity of human rights defenders, none will be able to resist.

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