Tag Archives: Front Line Defenders

[Urgent Appeal] Judicial harassment of Windel Bolinget -Front Line Defenders

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#HumanRights #Harassment

15 January 2021

Philippines: Judicial harassment of Windel Bolinget

Since late December, there has been intensified targeting of human rights defender, Windel Bolinget, in relation to a trumped-up murder case filed against him in August 2020. The case filed by the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor of Taguma City, Davao del Norte, names Windel Bolinget and ten other individuals. The defender was only informed of the warrant for his arrest in the last week of December. Since then, there has been constant police surveillance of his office and locality and police have been harassing his family and friends for information on his whereabouts.

Windel Bolinget is an indigenous rights defender and the Chairperson of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), an alliance of over 300 indigenous people’s organisations in the Cordillera region of the Philippines. The human rights defender has been leading many of CPA’s campaigns against human rights violations such as extrajudicial killings, trumped-up cases, enforced disappearance, harassment, and intimidation of Cordillera indigenous peoples. He has also been at the forefront of local movements against large-scale mining projects, mega-dams and other projects that pose a threat to the environment.

On 6 August 2020, a criminal case was filed at Davao del Norte, against ten individuals, including indigenous rights defender Windel Bolinget, for their alleged involvement in the murder of Garito Malibato, a member of a local indigenous peoples organisation called Karadyawan, on 21 March 2018. On 25 September 2020, the Regional Trial Court in Tagum City issued a warrant of arrest for murder against the individuals. However, the CAP and Windel Bolinget were only made aware of the arrest warrant in the last week of December 2020.

The murder charges brought against the defender appear to be completely fabricated. Windel Bolinget has never been to Barangay Gupitan, Kapalong, where Garito Malibato was murdered. Following the murder, local indigenous organisations pointed to a paramilitary group as the perpetrators. Further, a relative of the victim also expressed that Malibato had received several death threats from the same paramilitary group before he was killed.

With the defender yet to be arrested, police intelligence agents have regularly been approaching relatives, friends and colleagues of the human rights defender, interrogating them for information on his whereabouts. There has also been heavy physical surveillance, with men, believed to be members and assets of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police, walking around Windel Bolinget’s house and also the regional secretariat of the CPA, in search for the defender.Windel Bolinget’s family and colleagues fear that, if the defender is arrested, he may be subjected to the “tokhang”-style execution (extrajudicial killing under the pretext of “resisting arrest” or “nanlaban/fought back”), which is a common occurrence in the country.

This is not the first time that the defender has been targeted for his peaceful human rights work. In 2006, Windel Bolinget was included in a military hit list, along with other leaders of the CPA. In February 2018, the Department of Justice’s terrorist proscription list included the defender’s name and that of former CPA leaders. Their names were eventually dropped from the list due to lack of proof. Since mid 2020, the targeting of the defender has intensified, with many pages on social media branding him, his family and his colleagues as terrorists. On 10 December 2020, flyers with a photo of the defender and text calling him immoral and recruiter of the armed revolutionary group, New Peoples Army, were scattered along the road 80 from his house in La Trinidad, Benguet to Baguio City.

Front Line Defenders recognises the importance of investigating and elucidating all the facts about the murder of Garito Malibato. Nevertheless, it believes that this latest warrant of arrest forms part of a wider pattern by the military to intimidate and vilify human rights defenders by linking them to crimes they did not commit or had no involvement in. Over the past years, several human rights defenders, including several peasant leaders of the CPA have been killed in this manner, after they were red-tagged and judicially harassed.

Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned by the increasingly hostile environment for human rights defenders in the Philippines. Front Line Defenders condemns the judicial harassment of Windel Bolinget and the fabricated charges brought against him, as it believes he is being targeted for his legitimate and peaceful work for the protection of human rights.

Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in the Philippines to:

Immediately cease the investigation and drop all charges against Windel Bolinget, as Front Line Defenders believes that he is being targeted solely as a result of his legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights;

Immediately cease the ongoing harassment and surveillance on the family and colleagues of the human rights defender;

Cease targeting all human rights defenders in the Philippines and guarantee in all circumstances that they are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment.

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[Off-the-shelf] Physical, emotional and digital protection while using home as office in times of COVID-19 -Front Line Defenders

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Ideas & tips for human rights defenders

A global pandemic is a new situation for all of us. Most of us already are or soon may be forced to start working remotely. Many will use their home as an office. In some places, there is no doubt this crisis will be abused to further repress human rights defenders (HRDs) and human rights organisations (HROs) like many other crisis situations have been used in the past. Physical and emotional environments are also very different for each of us.

However, Front Line Defenders has experience advising HRDs working remotely and part of its own team has been working remotely – and securely – for years. Below is some of our thinking and learning around the challenges of this modality of work. It is hard to put down one size fits all solutions, especially for physical and emotional protection. This is offered as inspiration to evaluate and improve protection of your particular situation. And if you are a HRD or HRO at risk in your country, you may always reach out to Front Line Defenders for help – the organisation is at work and fully operational during this time.

We encourage you to communicate clearly and promptly with your donors and partners regarding your particular situation. Donors in the human rights space are highly sensitive to the difficulties this crisis is posing to its partners and grantees, even as they face a variety of unprecedented challenges. We believe it makes situation much more manageable if they know what is possible and impossible at this moment for you and your organisation regarding your work or cooperation with them. They also may be able to help you with your specific needs right now, things like portable equipment to work from home or additional at-home security measures.

Read full story @www.frontlinedefenders.org

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[Statement] Front Line Defenders Welcomes the Appointment of Mary Lawlor as UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders

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[Dublin, Ireland] – Front Line Defenders welcomes the appointment of Mary Lawlor as UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders by the UN Human Rights Council during its 43rd session. Ms. Lawlor’s appointment is a clear recognition of her dedication to the safety, security, and wellbeing of human rights defenders at risk around the world, exemplified by her establishing Front Line Defenders in 2001.

Under Ms. Lawlor’s leadership until her retirement in 2016, Front Line Defenders became one of the leading organizations providing resources for the protection and security of human rights defenders at risk, with a global reach and able to respond to HRDs’ needs in emergencies. She helped spearhead civil society efforts to bring the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders into effect and became a recognized leader in focusing on attention on the unique protection needs of HRDs.

Remarking on the announcement, Andrew Anderson, Front Line Defenders Executive Director, said, “Mary Lawlor is an excellent choice as UNSR, she has huge experience of working with human rights defenders in all world regions with a focus on creative and practical support and she has the empathy, tact, and tenacity to make a considerable impact.”

Front Line Defenders also takes this opportunity to thank Mr. Michel Forst, the current UNSR, for his tireless efforts during the past six years to meet human rights defenders and defend their work. Mr. Forst attended the FLD Dublin Platform in October 2019 and addressed over 120 HRDs, offering his unyielding commitment to human rights defenders even beyond his mandate.

Front Line Defenders looks forward to working with Ms. Lawlor in her new role to advance and strengthen support for human rights defenders around the world, even as unprecedented threats and attacks are occurring on a daily basis.

Source: www.frontlinedefenders.org

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[Urgent Alert] Judicial harassment of ten human rights defenders -Front Line Defenders

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6 March 2020

On 2 March 2020, human rights defenders from Karapatan, Gabriela and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines received a court notice sustaining a motion filed by a government official, finding probable cause to charge the human rights defenders with perjury.

Karapatan is an alliance of individuals, groups and organisations, formed in 1995 for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines. It is committed to the defence of people’s rights and civil liberties through education, training, advocacy, research and network building. Gabriela is a grassroots-based alliance that organises Filipino women, primarily from marginalised sectors of society, and helps empower and train them to fight for their rights and interests through collective action. The organisation provides direct services to marginalised women including counselling services, medical missions, relief and rehabilitation in times of disaster, as well as capacity building training on women’s rights. The Rural Missionaries of the Philippines is a church-based national organisation, comprising priests and laypersons. The group empowers farmers, fisherfolk and indigenous peoples, and educates them on their rights.

On 2 March 2020, human rights defenders from Karapatan, Gabriela, and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines received a court notice informing them that on 24 February 2020, a Quezon City Prosecutor had granted a motion for reconsideration, finding probable cause to charge the human rights defenders with perjury.

In May 2019, the human rights defenders had filed a petition for a writ of Amparo citing the increasing attacks, smear campaigns and red-tagging1 of human rights defenders by the Philippine military. However, on 28 June 2019, the Philippine Court of Appeals denied the petition. A government official, who had been named in the petition, filed perjury complaints against the human rights defenders for allegedly including false information.

In September 2019, an assistant Quezon City prosecutor dismissed the complaints against all but one human rights defender. Following this, the government official filed a motion for reconsideration of the dismissed complaints. On 24 February 2020, the Quezon City prosecutor sustained the motion and found probable cause to charge ten individuals with perjury. According to the Philippines law, perjury is punishable by imprisonment from six months to two years and two months. Some of the human rights defenders have applied for anticipatory bail ahead of the issuance of the warrants for their arrest.

This is not the first time members of these organisations have been intimidated and attacked. The human rights defenders have been wrongfully charged, threatened on social media, physically attacked and even accused by officials of having links to armed communist groups in the past.

Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned by the increasingly hostile environment for human rights defenders in the Philippines. It urges the government to stop the judicial harassment of human rights defenders as it believes they are being targeted for their legitimate and peaceful work for the protection of human rights.

Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in the Philippines to:

Immediately cease the judicial harassment of the human rights defenders from Karapatan, Gabriela and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, as it is believed to be solely motivated by their legitimate and peaceful work in defence of human rights;

Take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity and security of the human rights defenders, in consultation with them;

Carry out immediate, thorough and impartial investigations into the attacks, smear campaigns and red-tagging of human rights defenders by the Philippine military;

Take measures to ensure that government officials refrain from stigmatising the legitimate work of human rights defenders;

Cease targeting all human rights defenders in the Philippines and guarantee in all circumstances that they are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment.

1 “Red-tagging” refers to the broad trend of labelling by the Philippine authorities of human rights defenders, journalists, rural communities and others perceived as threats or enemies of the State, as having links to communist groups.

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[From the web] HRonlinePH and Front Line Defenders

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HRonlinePH and Front Line Defenders

Front Line Defenders annual publication about the significant challenges confronting human rights defenders (HRDs) and our efforts to provide the protection and support they so critically need, as well as the Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders at Risk in 2017, which documents hundreds of physical, legal, and social attacks on HRDs around the world in 2017.

Read full article @www.frontlinedefenders.org

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[Statement] Front Line Defenders condemns the inclusion of human rights defenders in ‘terror list’ petition

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Statement: Front Line Defenders condemns the inclusion of human rights defenders in ‘terror list’ petition

Front Line Defenders unequivocally condemns the inclusion of human rights defenders in a petition filed by the Department of Justice seeking to label them as terrorists as it puts them in danger of arrest or attack. It believes that they are being targeted for their peaceful and legitimate human rights work in the Philippines.

In the prevailing atmosphere of violence against human rights defenders in the Philippines, the Department of Justice filed a petition on 23 February 2018 seeking to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the CPP, as terrorist organisations. However, many of the individuals named in the petition are human rights defenders. The petition was filed under Republic Act 9372 or the Human Security Act of 2007, otherwise known as the anti-terrorism law.

The petition follows President Rodrigo Duterte’s proclamation that the CPP and NPA are terrorist groups after the collapse of peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in December last year. In January 2018, he declared that he would pursue left-wing organisations, accusing them of being communist fronts. Within this context, scores of legitimate and peaceful human rights defenders have been labeled as terrorists, making them targets of violence and judicial harassment by associating them with ‘terrorist organisations’ and putting them in grave danger. Many of the human rights defenders are working on indigenous peoples’ rights, lands rights and women’s rights.

Indigenous human rights defenders and others working for the rights of indigenous people are named in the petition, including the current UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli Corpuz. Ilocos environmental activist Sherwin De Vera is also tagged as a member of CPP as is Elisa Tita Lubi, who is a Karapatan National Executive Committee member and former interim regional coordinator of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development. Current and former chairpersons of numerous indigenous organisations are targeted as well as at least 10 indigenous leaders in Northern and Southern Mindanao.

This is the latest in a series of moves to delegitimise and undermine the work of human rights defenders in the Philippines by the Duterte administration. In August 2017, President Duterte called for the police to shoot human rights defenders for “obstructing justice” and for being a part of drug activity. He also threatened human rights organisations with criminal investigations for criticising his war on drugs.

The climate of impunity that prevails in the country, combined with the administration’s encouragement of extra-judicial killings has resulted in the serious deterioration in the situation for human rights defenders in the country. Front Line Defenders recorded the killing of 60 HRDs in the Philippines in 2017, an increase of nearly 100% on the previous year in their Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders at Risk in 2017. Human rights defenders have been regularly accused of violent crimes or of being members of the NPA. Judicial harassment and criminalisation of human rights defenders remain common, with politicians and private actors using the criminal justice system to silence those who oppose their interests.

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[Off-the-shelf] More than 300 Activists Murdered in 2017: Front Line Defenders Launches Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders At Risk

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More than 300 Activists Murdered in 2017: Front Line Defenders Launches Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders At Risk

Dedicated to the more than 300 human rights defenders murdered this year, the Front Line Defenders Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders At Risk opens with two pages listing the names of the deceased. Launched today in Dublin, the report details the physical attacks, threats, judicial harassment, and smear campaigns used by state, non-state, and corporate actors to hinder the work of peaceful human rights defenders (HRDs) around the world.

In 2017, 312 defenders in 27 countries were killed for their peaceful work, according to data collected by Front Line Defenders. More than two-thirds of these, 67% of the total number of activists killed, were defending land, environmental and indigenous peoples’ rights, nearly always in the context of mega projects, extractive industry and big business.

Read full article @www.frontlinedefenders.org

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[Urgent Appeal] Human rights defender arrested in rebellion case -Front Line Defenders

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Human rights defender arrested in rebellion case
18 December 2017

On 12 December 2017, human rights defender and environmentalist Sherwin De Vera was arrested in Northern Luzon, in Ilocos Sur province.

Sherwin De Vera is the coordinator of Defend Ilocos, a regional environmental network in North Western Philippines affiliated with Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment. Defend Ilocos played a key role in leading the Save the Abra River Movement (STARM), which led protests against the detrimental effects of the continued operations of the Lepanto Mining Company on the local communities’ right to a safe and healthy environment in Ilocos Sur. Defend Ilocos is also involved in mobilizing and organizing against the proposed setting up of a coal-fired power plant in Luna, La Union. The human rights defender is also a former worker of Filipino human rights NGO Karapatan.

On December 12, around 6.30pm, Sherwin De Vera was arrested by the Philippine National Police (PNP) when he was on board a bus to his home in Bantay, Ilocos Sur. The PNP stopped the vehicle at a checkpoint, found Sherwin De Vera, and informed him that he was being arrested. The police failed to produce a warrant when Sherwin De Vera demanded to see a copy. He was verbally informed that a rebellion case had been filed against him. He was shown a copy of the complaint, Case no 2014-155., allegedly filed in the Province of Abra on 4 September 2014, when he was brought to the PNP office. Since then, three additional cases have been opened against Sherwin De Vera. In the four cases he being charged with one count of rebellion, one count of attempted murder, 28 counts of attempted murder, and 20 counts of attempted murder. All the incidents he is allegedly chargeed with are from 2014, when Sherwin De Vera took over the coordination of Defend Ilocos. He is currently detained in Abra Provincial Jail.

Previously, on 18 July 2017, Sherwin de Vera was followed by men in military uniforms in Vigan City. The following day, he learned that army personnel had enquired about his activities at the city’s university after he visited their campus.

Environmental, land and indigenous rights defenders have been increasingly targeted in Philippines with threats, attacks, intimidation and harassment from military agents as part of a larger crackdown on civil society. The use of trumped-up charges to jail human rights defenders through perjured testimonies, defective warrants, and false charges is becoming more frequent.

Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the arrest of, and charges against, human rights defender Sherwin De Vera, which it believes are solely motivated by his peaceful and legitimate human rights work.

Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in the Philippines to:

1. Immediately and unconditionally release Sherwin De Vera as Front Line Defenders believes that he is being held solely as a result of his legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights;

2. Immediately ensure that all charges against him are dropped, that the cases are closed, and that there be no further forms of harassment against Sherwin De Vera as it is believed that this pressure is not only related to his legitimate human rights activities but, furthermore, constitute a direct transgression of the rights of the human rights defender;

3. Cease targeting all human rights defenders in the Philippines and guarantee in all circumstances that they are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions, including judicial harassment.

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