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Amnesty International urged the government of the Philippines on Wednesday to cease using the country’s anti-terrorism laws against development workers and human rights activists and to halt its “crackdown” on human rights organizations. The rights group called on the Philippines’ authorities to amend their current legislation and to implement a suitable environment that allows human rights activists and civil society organizations to carry out their activity.
Amnesty International expressed concerns over a state-sponsored intimidation campaign that has been targeting NGOs and their staff members in the Philippines. This campaign involves various acts of harassment, including red-tagging, which is the practice of labeling individuals and groups as related to communist rebels without substantial evidence. Additionally, it includes freezing the assets of human rights organizations and issuing arrest warrants against activists under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 for terrorism-related charges. Amnesty International asserted that these harassment measures hindered the work of civil society organizations that have made significant contributions to providing essential services to local communities in need.
The rights group also reported instances where human rights advocates received unfounded arrest warrants that were issued based solely on a single person’s testimony alleging that they financed terrorism or committed terrorist acts. This was the case of an organization dedicated to the defense of sustainable agriculture and the rights of fishermen and farmers, whose two staff members were arrested for allegedly financing a terrorist group. Their arrest follows a testimony given in 2014 by a former member of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which the Anti-Terrosim Council designated as a terrorist organization in 2020.
In its report, Amnesty International condemned the misuse of anti-terrorism laws by Filipino authorities to target human rights activists and development organizations. It also called on the government of the Philippines to reform the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act to ensure that they don’t obstruct or criminalize humanitarian activity.
Furthermore, the rights group demanded the drop of all criminal charges against detained humanitarian groups, development workers, and human rights activists. The group recommended building an adequate environment for humanitarian activity and human rights advocacy to thrive. Finally, it urged the current administration to dismantle the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict to end red-tagging. The latter is a task force created by the government of the Philippines in 2018 as part of the “Whole-of-Nation approach” in response to the armed conflict in the Philippines.
This is not the first time that the Philippines has faced criticism for its human rights policy. Amnesty International has previously found that the country’s authorities have weaponized social media platforms to undermine young activists’ right to free speech. The rights group has also called on the government to reject the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, citing numerous flaws in the proposed bill and expressing concerns about the potential misuse of its provisions to target civil society groups.
The post Philippines urged to end the use of anti-terrorism laws against human rights activists appeared first on JURIST - News.
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Amnesty International expressed concerns over a state-sponsored intimidation campaign that has been targeting NGOs and their staff members in the Philippines. This campaign involves various acts of harassment, including red-tagging, which is the practice of labeling individuals and groups as related to communist rebels without substantial evidence. Additionally, it includes freezing the assets of human rights organizations and issuing arrest warrants against activists under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 for terrorism-related charges. Amnesty International asserted that these harassment measures hindered the work of civil society organizations that have made significant contributions to providing essential services to local communities in need.
The rights group also reported instances where human rights advocates received unfounded arrest warrants that were issued based solely on a single person’s testimony alleging that they financed terrorism or committed terrorist acts. This was the case of an organization dedicated to the defense of sustainable agriculture and the rights of fishermen and farmers, whose two staff members were arrested for allegedly financing a terrorist group. Their arrest follows a testimony given in 2014 by a former member of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which the Anti-Terrosim Council designated as a terrorist organization in 2020.
In its report, Amnesty International condemned the misuse of anti-terrorism laws by Filipino authorities to target human rights activists and development organizations. It also called on the government of the Philippines to reform the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act to ensure that they don’t obstruct or criminalize humanitarian activity.
Furthermore, the rights group demanded the drop of all criminal charges against detained humanitarian groups, development workers, and human rights activists. The group recommended building an adequate environment for humanitarian activity and human rights advocacy to thrive. Finally, it urged the current administration to dismantle the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict to end red-tagging. The latter is a task force created by the government of the Philippines in 2018 as part of the “Whole-of-Nation approach” in response to the armed conflict in the Philippines.
This is not the first time that the Philippines has faced criticism for its human rights policy. Amnesty International has previously found that the country’s authorities have weaponized social media platforms to undermine young activists’ right to free speech. The rights group has also called on the government to reject the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, citing numerous flaws in the proposed bill and expressing concerns about the potential misuse of its provisions to target civil society groups.
The post Philippines urged to end the use of anti-terrorism laws against human rights activists appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.