Message Of Support To The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal On The
Occasion Of The Convening Of The Second Session On The
Warm greetings of solidarity to the Permanent Peoples’
Tribunal, its officers, the jurors and the prosecutors on the occasion of the convening
of the Second Session on the
We likewise convey our best wishes to the organizers and the
International Coordinating Secretariat for bringing into fruition this very
timely PPT Second Session on the
We salute the Filipino mass organizations, institutions and
individuals who serve as initiators, plaintiffs, coordinators and documentors
in this historic event.
The International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL),
being an international group of anti-imperialist human rights lawyers and law
students from various countries especially where imperialist exploitation are
most severe, human rights violations are most widespread and the peoples’
struggles are most intense, wholeheartedly supports this PPT session to look
into the gross and systematic violations of human rights, economic plunder, and
transgressions on the sovereignty of the Filipino people.
As a clear expression of our profoundest condemnation of the
unmitigated killings and disappearances by forces linked to the Philippine
government and as a fitting tribute to our fallen comrades in the profession
and to those who continue to serve the people notwithstanding these attacks,
the IAPL just held its 3rd Congress in the Philippines where we
vowed to give special attention to international campaigns to help end these
onslaughts on the democratic rights of activists, farmers, workers, urban poor,
religious, women, students, lawyers, indigenous people and community
organizers.
Complementary to previous initiatives of various
fact-finding missions and tribunals made by international organizations that
included independent lawyers’ organizations, it is time that the international
community takes a step higher. It is time to put even greater moral pressure on
a government that is seriously perceived to be illegitimate and openly
supported by the
As a very respected and prestigious body, we are confident
that the PPT will properly evaluate the overwhelming amount of credible
evidence that would support the Filipino people’s valid claim that the
US-Arroyo regime has violated with a false sense of impunity international law
amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity and violations of
international humanitarian law.
We trust that the proceedings and findings of the PPT Second
Session on the
Indeed, there will always be a time for reckoning. And the
IAPL will be one with the PPT and the Filipino people in making sure that
justice is ultimately served.#
30 October 2006,
For reference: Atty. Edre U. Olalia,
President