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The National Union of Peoples' Lawyers, a Filipino human rights lawyers association based in Manila, came to know of the existence of an alleged secret "blacklist" by the Arroyo administration barring more than 500 individuals -- most of them human rights advocates and activists worldwide, including at least 20 prominent human rights lawyers headed by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark -- from entering the Philippines on the spurious claim of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
NUPL Secretary-General attorney Neri Javier Colmenares, a human rights and anti-corruption lawyer in the Philippines, said such mindless inclusion of foreigners in what is actually a "terrorist list" disguised as a hold departure order raises concerns as to how the government will implement the anti-terrorism law known as the Human Security Act of 2007.
Colmenares asserted that such an act against lawyers is a violation of the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime. The NUPL secretary-general claimed that under Section 16 of the U.N. edict on the role of lawyers, governments all over the world shall ensure that lawyers are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference and shall not suffer, or be threatened with, prosecution or administrative, economic or other sanctions for any action taken in accordance with recognized professional duties, standards and ethics.
The Filipino human rights lawyers' group points to the inclusion in the blacklist of all the European lawyers and judges who participated in the June 2006 fact-finding mission which investigated escalating attacks against Filipino lawyers and judges, namely judges Jan Bless and Nol Vermolen and attorneys Gerard Boot, Jo Dereymaeker, Hein Karskens, Judith Lichtenberg, Angela Meijer and Adrie van de Streek.
The NUPL said last year's independent fact-finding mission in the Philippines to look into the cases of extrajudicial killings of lawyers and judges allegedly perpetrated by Philippine state security forces under the Arroyo administration was organized by the Dutch Lawyers for Lawyers Foundation and supported by the Netherlands Bar Association, the Amsterdam Bar Association and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and hosted by the Counsels for the Defense of Liberties. The published report of the fact-finding mission, "From Facts to Action: Report on the Attacks against Filipino Lawyers and Judges" has subsequently been cited in the reports of several human rights groups such as Amnesty International.
The NUPL said that during their stay in Manila these European lawyers and judges, in the interest of fairness and objectivity, held long meetings with Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Department of Justice Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuno, Deputy Director General of the Philippine National Police Chief Avelino Razon, former Senate President Franklin Drilon, Senator Francis Pangilinan, several members of Congress and other prominent officials in the Philippine government.
Prior to creating the "terrorist list" of human rights lawyers and activists, the Philippine government deported attorney Brian Campbell of the Washington-based International Labor Rights Fund because of his inclusion on another blacklist on which may be found other prominent human rights lawyers such as former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and attorneys Lennox Hinds, Tina Monshipour Foster of the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights, Rachel Lederman, Merrilyn Onisko, Vanessa Lucas of the U.S. National Lawyers Guild, Jill Soffiyah Elijah of Harvard Law School, David Pugh, Mathew Parham, Blanche Coil, Hakan Harakus and many more colleagues from the legal profession abroad.
The United Nations has always stressed the paramount concern and importance that lawyers, like other citizens, are entitled to freedom of expression, belief, association and assembly. In particular, they have the right to take part in public discussion of matters concerning the law, the administration of justice and the promotion and protection of human rights and to join or form local, national or international organizations and attend their meetings, without suffering professional restrictions by reason of their lawful action or their membership in a lawful organization.
The Philippines' terrorist list of human rights lawyers and known defenders of peoples' rights and civil liberties should call the attention of other human rights lawyers groups and civil liberties movements across the globe. This Hitler-like hit list and Nazi Germany-style act of the Arroyo government must be challenged by freedom-loving people in any appropriate court, in the court of international public opinion and in the parliament of the streets.
The campaign of the ruling de facto military-civilian junta in the Philippines against human rights lawyers and defenders of civil liberties is expected to draw protests from various human rights lawyers groups outside the capital of Manila.
The local human rights lawyers group in the Philippines has been drawing political and moral support from lawyers groups such as the Progress Lawyers Network of Belgium, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the Japan Lawyers International Solidarity Action, Dutch Lawyers for Lawyers, Dutch Lawyers without Borders, International Association of People's Lawyers, the National Lawyers Guild of the United States, the Lawyers Rights Watch of Canada, the Acilim Law Office of Turkey, the People's Lawyers Nucleus of Brazil, the Indian Association of People's Lawyers, the Japanese Environmental Legal Foundation, Human Rights Now of Japan and lawyers from Australia.
The inclusion of foreign human rights lawyers in the terrorist list of the Philippine government must trigger an international uproar and a global protest against the present military dictatorship in Malacañang. The human rights lawyers of the world must unite to defend the human rights and civil liberties of their poor and oppressed clients, and uphold lawyering for the poor and the oppressed as a noble, just and moral crusade towards the attainment of just and lasting peace based on justice.
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(Gerry Albert Corpuz is a correspondent of Bulatlat.com, an alternative Philippine online news site. He is also the head of the information department of Pamalakaya, a national federation of small fisherfolk organizations in the Philippines. His website is www.gerryalbertcorpuz.motime.com, and he can be contacted at themanager98@yahoo.com. ©Copyright Gerry Albert Corpuz.)
