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Violations of Human Rights of Filipinos in The Netherlands Exposed
11 June 08; 1209pm; Wed
Geneva, June 11, 2008. Attached hereto are the abridged and unabridged versions
of the intervention delivered this morning by Atty Edre U. Olalia, representative of
the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, before the 8th session of the
UN Human Rights Council during the Universal Periodic Review of the human rights
record of The Netherlands.
The intervention exposes the violations of human rights of Filipinos living in The
Netherlands on the basis of false criminal charges supplied by Philippine authorities
to their Dutch counterparts.
The cases cited are the arbitrary arrest and detention of Prof. Jose Maria Sison and
the indiscriminate raids by the Dutch police on the office of the National Democratic
Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the homes of NDFP peace negotiators, consultants
and staffers on August 28, 2007.
Also attached hereto is a picture of Atty. Olalia reading the intervention.
You can watch the webcast of the intervention by searching
http://www.un.org/webcast/unhrc
Go to archived video, then June 11, then go to Netherlands, then stakehholders,
then IADL.
After the delivery of three NGOs (IADL, Aim for Human Rights and ICJ), Dutch
Ambassador for Human Rights from the Foreign Ministry Mr. Arjan Hamburger said
on the floor that they will respond to the issues raised by the NGOs in an interim
overview of their UPR report or "through bilateral contact with the organizations
that spoke."
Apparently, they were not prepared to answer the intervention and earlier gave
diplomatic and general statements that the "voice of civil society must sufficiently
be heard in this room", that it is "open to dialogue with civil society organizations
and NGOs," and that "NGOs must be active in the process."
At the time the oral intervention was delivered at around 1020H, the table of
the Philippine Mission was empty and remained empty until the Philippine UPR
Watch delegation stepped out at around 1115H.
Two other international NGOs supported the statement, namely Indian Council
of South America (ECOSOC-status) and the Indigenous Peoples and Nations
Coalition in addition to the Philippine UPR Watch whose members were in the room.
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