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International People’s Tribunal on the Philippines

Solidarity Links

The IPT 2018 shall seek to help raise the visibility before the international public of the ongoing violation of peoples’ rights in the Philippines, exercise moral suasion, and help generate further political pressure on the governments of the Philippines and the US to heed the calls of the Filipino people

Dear Friends,

Warm greetings of peace!

The 16th President of the Philippines, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, rode on the Filipino people’s clamor for change in his electoral campaign and in the first few months of his presidency. He promised pro-people economic reforms, opened his Cabinet to progressive leaders from civil society, resumed the long-stalled peace talks with the revolutionary National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), and called for an independent foreign policy, to name a few.

But less than two years into his term, his human rights record has surpassed the records of previous administrations (Arroyo and the recent Aquino regimes’), even that of the notorious Marcos dictatorship.

He has not only continued their anti-people economic programs, he waged a brutal “war on drugs”, declared and sustained martial law in Mindanao, unilaterally cancelled the peace talks with the NDFP and instead declared an “all-out-war” and intensified its US-inspired counterinsurgency program Oplan Kapayapaan, intentionally targeting unarmed activists and human rights defenders.

Philippine human rights group KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights), has documented 126 extrajudicial killings (EJKs), 235 frustrated EJKs, 272 illegal arrests and detention, 930 illegal arrest without detention, 426,590 victims of forced evacuation, 39,623 cases of use of public places for military purposes, 362,355 incidents of indiscriminate firing from July 2016 to December 2017.

These figures do not even include the unprecedented number of killings as a result of the administration’s anti-drug war Tokhang now estimated to be at least 10,000. While Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson Chief Superintendent Dionardo Carlos denies that there are extrajudicial killings under the Duterte administration, the PNP reported that there had been 6,225 drug-related deaths between July 2016 and September 2017.1 Furthermore, the PNP released a report that as of April 23, 2017, 7,080 people had been reported as killed in the “War On Drugs” since July 1, 2016.2 The victims of this bloody campaign are largely poor people, including minors and youth.

Well-documented cases of these human rights violations have been brought to the attention of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) by several concerned Philippines based as well as international civil society organizations through the Universal Periodic Review on the Philippines (UPR) process in Geneva in 2017 and the Special Procedure mechanisms. A
1http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/10/07/1746112/pnp-6225-drug-related-deaths-no-extrajudicial-killings 2https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/145814-numbers-statistics-philippines-war-drugs

number of national and international entities have likewise conducted fact-finding solidarity missions and have issued reports, recommendations and condemnations of the Philippine government’s inaction to stop the killings and other serious human rights violations in the country.

Despite the conclusions of these entities confirming the responsibility and culpability of State authorities, President Duterte and his closest allies remain unmoved and are intent in continuing atrocities, emboldened by US political and military backing.
Victims of human rights violations under the US-Duterte regime are seeking justice. They have organized themselves and are working closely with various organizations in strengthening efforts to hold perpetrators to account.
It is at their behest that the IPT 2018 is being convened by the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH), Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), IBON International, and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP).
The IPT 2018 shall seek to help raise the visibility before the international public of the ongoing violation of peoples’ rights in the Philippines, exercise moral suasion, and help generate further political pressure on the governments of the Philippines and the US to heed the calls of the Filipino people.

The IPT is a court of public opinion where concrete evidence shall be presented (through survivors and expert witnesses) of their violations of the Filipino people’s individual and collective rights under international law. They will be brought for judgment before the broadest possible international audience.

The Tribunal’s verdict shall be based on a thorough and fair assessment of the evidence by a body of jurors composed of leading public figures of recognized achievement and high moral stature, in accordance with applicable legal standards. The body of evidence and verdict of the IPT 2018 shall be transmitted to the United Nations, various Parliaments and governments, as well as broad international organizations.

The IPT 2018 shall serve due notice to the perpetrators of these violations that impunity shall not go unchallenged by the people.

Let us be reminded that the resulting international uproar against the spate of extra-judicial killings under the US-Arroyo regime soon after the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal Second Session in the Philippines (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and George W. Bush)3, contributed to a decrease in the incidence of such killings in the latter part of 2007. The decline, though 3 Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal Second Session on the Philippines [PPT2] of March 2007 in The Hague, The Netherlands (The Filipino People vs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, George W. Bush, et.al: indicting the US-backed Arroyo regime for human rights violations, economic plunder and transgression of Philippine sovereignty)

temporary, was a welcome respite for the Filipino people under siege.

The Filipino people again appeal to the peoples of the world to listen to their voices and join them in their struggle for just and lasting peace in the land.

We invite you to heed their call and be a part of the IPT 2018 in Brussels, Belgium, from September 17 to 20, 2018.

We fervently hope that you can ENDORSE* and/or SPONSOR** this initiative as well as send representatives*** to the actual Tribunal in September 2018.

In solidarity and on behalf of the conveners,

Angie M. Gonzales Coordinator, International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines Head of the International Coordinating Secretariat

* Endorsers are organizations and/or individuals from different disciplines publicly supporting or participating in this initiative, assisting the organizers in informing others who might be interested to do so as well; your organization/name will be published as an endorser in due time

** Sponsors are organizations or individuals financially supporting the organization of this initiative;

Your monetary contributions will be very helpful in covering the costs of documenting the cases up to international legal standards, bringing the witnesses to testify at the Tribunal and eventually in the dissemination of the verdict to the international community

Account Name: Stichting ICHRP IBAN: NL12 INGB 0006 8639 12 BIC: ING BNL 2A Please indicate: Donation to the IPT 2018

For specific contributions or in kind (ex. Publication, accommodation in Brussels, etc., organization of an event after the IPT proper), please contact ipt2018@humanrightsphilippines.net

*** Practical information for actual attendance to the Tribunal to follow; delegates are requested to pre-register

For confirmation of participation or inquiries, please write to: ipt2018@humanrightsphilippines.net

Forum with Niranjan Takle

SANSAD Events

SANSAD Forum

Niranjan Takle: Journalist on the Fascist Trail

Niranjan Takle in conversation with Dionne Bunsha and Peter Klein

September 16, 2018

1.00 PM – 4.00 PM

Room 120, Surrey Centre Library

10350 University Drive, Surrey

“We should know by now that we are up against a regime that its own police call fascist. In the India of today, to belong to a minority is a crime. To be murdered is a crime. To be lynched is a crime. To be poor is a crime. To defend the poor is to plot to overthrow the government.” Arundhati Roy

There is a shift in the world toward right-wing populist authoritarianism. As the recent spate of arrests of human rights activists and lawyers shows India is well advanced on this path with its ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) moving rapidly to make India a Hinduva fascist state. Investigative journalist Niranjan Takle tells a story of historical significance in this development: the murder of a judge presiding over a case of extra-judicial killing in which the president of the ruling party and the most powerful man in India today, Amit Shah was the prime suspect.

In 2005 a Muslim man, Shohrabuddin Sheikh was murdered in custody by the Gujarat police and his wife, Kauser Bi was also raped and murdered. Senior officers of the Gujarat police were involved in this custodial murder, a practice legitimized by naming it “encounter” in India. The home minister of Gujarat at the time, Amit Shah, was the director of the operation.

The Supreme Court of India ordered an inquiry into these murders by the Central Bureau of Investigations and appointed a Special court of t he CBI to try Amit Shah and 11 police officers.

The presiding judge J. T. Utpat, became exasperated by the non-appearance of Amit Shah and ordered him to present himself on June 26, 2014. In answer he was transferred on June 25. Judge B. H. Loya who replaced him also became similarly exasperated and ordered Shah to appear in court on Dec 15. Instead, he was declared dead from natural causes on Dec 1 while attending a wedding in Nagpur. The next judge heard the case in two days and discharged Amit Shah on December 30. All other accused were also discharged.

 

Investigative journalist Niranjan Takle was approached by the niece of Judge Loya to report on the extremely suspicious death of her uncle and published the results of his investigation in The Caravan on November 20, 2017. He resigned from the Bombay paper he had worked for since 2011, The Week, after it refused to publish the story. Takle’s story has led to a delegation of politicians to the President of India and a (fruitless) hearing in the Supreme Court. But it has been conspicuously ignored in the mainstream media.

Judge Loya’s death is a milestone in the development of fascism in India, enveloped as it is in the silence of his fellow judges and the determined evasion of the mainstream media. With journalists and journalism under attack everywhere in the world today it is more than ever necessary to hear the voices of those who have the courage and tenacity to uncover what the powerful want covered up.

 

Niranjan Takle trained as an engineer. He turned to journalism with a strong sense of media being used for political manipulation and propaganda and a desire to counter it. He joined CNN-IBN in 2005 and began by breaking a story of the smuggling of placenta chords from government hospitals. Moving from Nasik to Bombay he worked with The Week from 2011 to 2017, when he resigned on being denied publication for his story, “The Mysterious Death of Judge Loya.” His story, “A Lamb, Lionized” on V. D. Savarkar, the icon of the Hindu nationalist RSS and BJP, exposing him as a collaborator with the British, was published in The Wire in January 2016.

 

Peter W. Klein is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and filmmaker. He has reported from around the globe for CBS News 60 Minutes, as well as other network programs. He writes for US publications and oversees independent productions out of his studio in Vancouver. He is also the director of the University of British Columbia School of Journalism, and runs the school’s International Reporting Program. In 2009-2010 he was the host of the national Canadian public affairs program The Standard

 

Dionne Bunsha is an award-winning author and journalist. She is the author of the acclaimed non-fiction book, Scarred: Experiments with Violence in Gujarat (Penguin India, 2006) about the aftermath of the communal violence in Gujarat. As a Senior Assistant Editor for Frontline magazine (www.frontline.in) in Mumbai, India, she travelled extensively to report on human rights, social justice and environmental issues.  Dionne writes for The Guardian, The Hindu newspaper, the New Internationalist, Guernica, Toronto Star and The Tyee. Dionne was a Knight International Journalism Fellow at Stanford University in 2008-09. Currently, Dionne coordinates a project mapping indigenous knowledge for Lower Fraser First Nations and teaches communications at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

 

Organized by South Asian Network for secularism and Democracy (SANSAD), http://

www.sansad.org; co-sponsored by GRC https://globalreportingcentre.org/about/