Tags: Human Rights

At first glance, they looked like ordinary children. But deep within them are scarred souls and lost innocence because they are children-victims of human rights violations. On December 9, they went to see the United Nations (UN) Secretary General’s Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy to tell her their tragic stories.

A prominent Dutch lawyers’ group based in this city that participated in an international verification and fact-finding mission on attacks on Filipino lawyers and judges last November 4-14, 2008 in the Philippines, echoed their call on the Arroyo government to investigate the killings not only of members of the legal profession but also of other…

Heightened militarization in the boundaries of Kalinga, Mountain Province, Abra and Ilocos Sur led to various human rights violations of the collective rights of the residents in these areas, reported a human rights watchdog in the Cordillera region. These, according to residents, are also areas where mining applications have been approved. BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW…

Is the recent spate of activist killings in Southern Mindanao an unfortunate series of coincidences or are they somehow related to the Philippine military’s counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya 2? Successive reports and claims of shootings involving a red XRM motorbike; the use of a .45 pistol and the fact that three Bayan Muna (People…

A Bayan Muna (People First) leader who was shot and wounded by two unidentified men in Monkayo, Compostela Valley last November 30 died yesterday at the Davao Regional Hospital. Isabelo Celing, 47, barangay (village) coordinator of Bayan Muna Party List in Haguimitan was shot and wounded by armed men on board a red XRM motorcycle…

After being missing for six days, an abducted Moro activist was found in Camp Crame, slapped anew with kidnapping charges already dismissed in 2005. A human rights leader expressed fears that a police crackdown on Moros has been launched, yet again. BY DEE AYROSO HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Bulatlat For six days, Ahmad Hamja had desperately…

The wife and the daughter of a labor leader in Southern Tagalog were ‘almost abducted,’ a labor group said. According to the Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (PAMANTIK-KMU), Romeo Legaspi’s wife Hermelita, 47, and daughter Sherry Anne, 17, were approached by a suspected intelligence agent yesterday in Cabuyao, Laguna. Legaspi, president of Lakas-Manggagawang Nagkakaisa…