>From: "jollene levid" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Fwd: FW: We are on the "Blacklist" for Philippines
>Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2006 18:10:16 -0800
>
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Annalisa Enrile <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Dec 11, 2006 6:06 PM
Subject: FW: We are on the "Blacklist" for Philippines
To: "gabnet.org" <[log in to unmask]>
please forward to your listserves...
--
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=CeIFjVxKIX&Content=835
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, December 8, 2006
Contact:
NLG: Vanessa Lucas, (919) 828-1456, [log in to unmask]
CCR: Jen Nessel, (212) 614.6468
IADL: Jeanne Mirer, 313-515-2046, [log in to unmask]
CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS CALL FOR CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION INTO
BLACKLISTINGOF HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYERS BY THE PHILIPPINES
The civil rights and legal organizations, the National Lawyers Guild
(NLG), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the International
Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) call on Congress to investigate the
Philippine government's banning of U.S. lawyers who have been active in
investigating and reporting on human rights violations. These groups are
concerned about what appears to be an attempt to suppress exposure of
extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations that are being
perpetrated against critics of the regime of Philippine President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo.
On December 6, 2006, International Labor Rights Fund attorney Brian
Campbell was detained and turned back at the Manila airport when he arrived
from the U.S. en route to Cebu City for an international human rights
conference. Campbell had been invited by Philippine organizations to discuss
the ongoing extrajudicial killings and meet with victims' families. While
detained, Campbell was able to glance at a list of persons banned from
entering the Philippines, on which he noticed not only his own name, but
also those of Rachel Lederman and Tina Monshipour Foster. Lederman and
Foster were part of a delegation of women lawyers who visited the
Philippines earlier this year to investigate political repression there. The
delegation garnered much media coverage in the Philippines, and recently
released a report, Seeking Answers: Probing Political Persecution,
Repression and Human Rights Violations in the Philippines, Report of the
Women's Human Rights Delegation of the Center for Constitutional Rights, the
National Lawyers Guild and the International Association of Democratic
Lawyers. Rachel Lederman, Merrilyn Onisko and Vanessa Lucas represented the
NLG and IADL on the delegation, while Tina Monshipour Foster represented the
Center for Constitutional Rights.
The NLG/CCR/IADL report exposes the Philippine military's role in the
assassination of nearly 800 people, including 80 women organizers and
leaders, since Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took power in 2001. In addition, the
report exposes as a sham the government's ongoing attempt to prosecute six
progressive members of congress for rebellion. The legislators, who include
Gabriela Women's Party representative Liza Maza, have been successful in
exposing government corruption and opposing Arroyo- and U.S.-backed
repressive measures. For the past year, they have been fighting charges
accusing them of conspiring with other above ground left leaders to
overthrow Arroyo. The joint organization report recommended that U.S.
Congress investigate the use of U.S. funding for Philippine military
operations against the legal Left that are being conducted under the guise
of the War on Terror.
The NLG/CCR/IADL will not bow to intimidation, and will continue to
speak out for the activists, community leaders, lawyers, women and all the
brave people of the Philippines who must live under the oppression of the
U.S.-sponsored Arroyo government. The "blacklisting" of NLG, CCR and other
human rights lawyers concerned with the repression has only made us more
determined to call world attention to the increasing threats to Philippine
democracy. We call on the United States Congress to look into the banning of
Rachel Lederman, Tina Monshipour Foster and other U.S. human rights lawyers,
as well as the misuse of U.S. aid to support human rights violations in the
Philippines.
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