Accents
IAPL cries dissent
A power-packed magazine in defense of the democratic rights of the people is aptly titled Dissent, the official publication of the IAPL. To reiterate from last week's column, IAPL is the International Association of People's Lawyers. A footer in the magazine says it all: "The IAPL is an international organization of human rights lawyers, paralegals, law students and legal workers that aims to contribute to the establishment of a just and humane world order and use the legal profession to obtain immediate and concrete gains for the people's struggles for national freedom, social justice, democracy and respect for human rights." Put in another way, IAPL is a world-wide organization lawyering for the people.
Issue No.5, 2006 of Dissent, circulated in the IAPL 3rd Congress in Davao last Oct. 13-16, bannered the theme: The Role of Lawyers in Defending the Democratic Rights of the People. I have extracted the gist of the articles to provoke thought, stir up the complacent, and rouse them to action to defend the people's fundamental rights because the same could be brazenly stepped on by the mere pretext of waging war against terrorism. To wit:
Editorial:
"National liberation movements fighting foreign domination are called terrorists... Being "illegal combatants," they are not supposed to be covered by existing international conventions. Unconventional measures [read: torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment] can therefore be applied to them." (The more reason for human rights advocates to be vigilant against the use of these unconventional measures in the guise of fighting terrorism. --JCL)
Prof. Bill Bowring of the London Metropolitan University, The defense of human rights and the right of resistance in the area of the war on terror:
"Statewatch said that the "New definition of terrorism" can criminalise dissent and extra-parliamentary action. We also note that it fails to define what precisely it is about "terrorism" which adds anything to ordinary serious crimes. Influencing a government, or even intimidating the population cannot do the job. Otherwise, "Age Concern" [which campaigns for the elderly] or football hooligans must be terrorists. In this way the term becomes completely meaningless."
"It is clear that the UK's anti-terror legislation poses grave threats to human rights and civil liberties not only in the United Kingdom, but through the "threat of a bad example," the whole of the European Union."
Prof. Emeritus Ties Prakken, Combating terrorism in the Netherlands: Implementation of the framework decision on terrorism:
"Politicians are bidding against each other to show that they are toughest against terrorism and crime, and they are extending terrorism towards radicalism. ...Radicalism is the target of government policy, particularly violent animal activism, right wing violence and radical anti-globalization. In practice this means that a movement that had always been left alone in the Netherlands such as the Kurdish PKK is now labeled terrorist... [T]he judiciary is sometimes moderate and jurists in general are counterbalancing more or less. But civil rights are seriously under attack."
Atty. Raf Jespers of Progress Lawyers Network, Belgium, The War on Terror in Europe is a deliberate strategy to criminalize every resistance against capitalism
"There is a growing resistance in the EU against this "war on terror" which has degenerated into a war against fundamental rights and especially to the criminalizing of every political and social movement that dares to question the exploitation of capital with the scandalous profits and enrichment of a fraction of the population.
"Jo Stevens, Chairperson of the Order of Flemish Associations, and which represents more than 8,000 lawyers in Belgium, expressed it in his New Year speech as follows: ...We have become lawyers in the time of war. The rights and freedom that Europe through the centuries, centimeter by centimeter has fought for, are now being reversed with many meters. The fundamentalists of prevention and repression threaten our rule of law more than the religious fundamentalists."
Atty. Edre U. Olalia of the Public Interest Law Center--Philippines and IAPL Vice President, The Fundamental Right of Peoples to Struggle under International Law:
"When armed resistance groups adhere and comply with the rules set out in international humanitarian law, they are not and should not be considered terrorist organizations but legitimate parties to a conflict. ...Their use of armed force can also be recognized as a legitimate means in pursuit of their right to self-determination against colonial domination, alien occupation, racist regimes and against all other forms of neo-colonialism, systemic and systematic oppression and repression of peoples.
"Clearly, international law recognize as a fundamental right the struggles of different peoples against exploitation, oppression, occupation and tyranny and these struggles can not be validly regarded as "terrorism."
Necleus of People's Lawyers -- Brazil, March 17-19, 2006 seminar:
Atty. Hakan Karakus, IAPL Chairman, emphasized that the people's lawyers should not act as traditional defenders, "performing technically their profession within the space designed for them by the system but as part of the class struggle mission. The people's lawyers must try to transform the courts into stages where the struggle and the people's rights, their resistance and revolt against oppression and exploitation are legitimized." And that was, at the end of the seminar, the commitment made by the people's lawyers in Brazil: struggle, be with the people, and serve the people.
Atty. Hamida Siddique, Rape--A weapon of patriarchal society (in India):
"Women are considered private property in a feudal society. ...a power conflict usually includes sexual assault of women. The social stigma attached to it is making rape a weapon in the patriarchal society.
"As lawyers, we often come across gruesome incidents of rape in the areas where people have been struggling to change the social system, or in land struggles, or for identity or democratic rights.
"What is needed is to understand that it is the system that must change...Treating women as equals and respecting their rights is the first step towards this change. But can this really come about in a society that thrives on the exploitation and oppression of women?"
Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, adopted by the Eight United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders (1990):
"[T]he adequate protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms to which all persons are entitled, xxx requires that all persons have effective access to legal services provided by an independent legal profession. [Paging the Iloilo Legal Assistance Center or ILAC and its core of human rights lawyers: Attys. Janne Baterna, Steve Cercado, Sol Gamosa, Eli Guiloreza, Rudy Lagoc, Pet Melliza, and Bong San Felix.--JCL]...Lawyers shall not be identified with their clients or their client's causes as a result of the discharge of their functions....Governments shall ensure that lawyers (a) are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference; (b) are able to travel and consult with their clients freely; (c) shall not suffer, or be threatened with prosecution or administrative, economic and other sanctions for any action taken in accordance with recognized professional duties, standards and ethics."
In defense of human rights, IAPL is indeed a force to reckon with as shown by DISSENT, its power-packed magazine.
(Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)