MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / June 10, 2014) – The Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines or EcuVoice, a network of human rights defenders and faith-based institutions, said it is participating in the weeklong 26th sessions of United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland starting Tuesday.
The group said it aims to raise before the Council the pressing human rights concerns in the Philippines, including the continuing detention and injustice against Andrea Rosal and all political prisoners, and tribesmen who were victims of bombings and forced evacuation due to military operations in Mindanao, and the continuing attacks on lawyers and other human rights defenders, among others.
The EcuVoice delegation is composed of Cristina Palabay, Secretary General of human rights group Karapatan; Atty. Edre Olalia, Secretary General of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers; Rev. Irma Balaba, Assistant Program Secretary of the Christian Unity and Ecumenical Relations of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines; Sister Stella Matutina, of Panalipdan Mindanao; and Dr. Angie Gonzales, Atty. Kristerie Baleva and Julie Palaganas, of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines.
The delegation is set to deliver oral interventions, meet with Geneva-based State missions and UN mandate holders and international NGOs.
The delegation will also follow-up on the status of the complaints or communications filed before the special procedures of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, including those filed by Edith Burgos before the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance and by Filipino-American activist Melissa Roxas before the UN Committee against Torture.
The delegation is a follow-up engagement to the Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines in 2012 and the review of the Philippine government’s compliance to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international human rights instruments.
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