Basta Run Against Torture VIII on June 26, 2014

DEAR FRIENDS,

Warmest greetings from the Medical Action Group (MAG)!

The United Against Torture Coalition (UATC)- Philippines commemorates the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture every June 26, through BASTA! Run Against Torture (BRAT).

BRAT is a symbolic call to various stakeholders to take concrete and effective steps to address the routine use of torture through the effective implementation of the Anti-Torture Act of 2009 and putting in place structural changes that can help facilitate the quest of torture survivors for justice. We are doing this flagship activity for the eighth time.

This year, we are expecting to gather more than 300 participants for the run. We will assemble at the front of the University of the Philippines Oblation Statue at around 7:00 am and after a brief program, the run will start at 8:00 am which will take the route of PHILCOA going to Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon Avenue corner EDSA.

In this regard, we would like you and your organization to participate in this activity. We are also requesting you to wear a blue T-shirt for us to have a uniform color.

For your confirmation or inquiries, please free to contact us at telephone number 441.1073/433.1594 or email us at mag.1982@magph.org.

We are looking forward to your favorable response.

Thank you.

Respectfully yours,
(Sgd.)
Ms. Edeliza P. Hernandez, RN
Executive Director, Medical Action Group

United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

The United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture – 26 June is held annually on 26 June to speak out against the crime oftorture and to honour and support victims and survivors throughout the world.

This is a day on which we pay our respects to those who have endured the unimaginable. This is an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable. It is long overdue that a day be dedicated to remembering and supporting the many victims and survivors of torture around the world.
—Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan

On this International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, we express our solidarity with, and support for, the hundreds of thousands of victims of torture and their family members throughout the world who endure such suffering. We also note the obligation of States not only to prevent torture but to provide all torture victims with effective and prompt redress, compensation and appropriate social, psychological, medical and other forms of rehabilitation. Both the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council have now strongly urged States to establish and support rehabilitation centres or facilities.
—United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon 2012[

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_in_Support_of_Victims_of_Torture

Philippines: Torturers evade justice on Aquino’s watch

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Press release
26 June 2012

Philippines: Torturers evade justice on Aquino’s watch

President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has failed to ensure that police officers charged with torture face justice under the country’s anti-torture law, Amnesty International said on the International Day against Torture.

In August 2010, a national television news programme broadcast a mobile-phone video of a police officer torturing criminal suspect Darius Evangelista while other officers at a Manila police station looked on. The footage showed Evangelista writhing in pain as the officer, identified as Senior Inspector Joselito Binayug, yanked a cord attached to the detainee’s penis and whipped him with a rope.

After a 22-year campaign, the Philippine Congress in 2009 passed the Anti-Torture Act (Republic Act 9745), which prescribes criminal penalties for torture and other ill-treatment. Under the doctrine of command responsibility, the law also establishes liability for superiors who fail to prevent or punish torture committed by their subordinates.

ASIA: Violations of freedom of expression and extra-judicial killings denounced in Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines

An Oral Statement to the 20th Session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), a non-governmental organization in general consultative status

ASIA: Violations of freedom of expression and extra-judicial killings denounced in Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines
speaker: Ms. Tyrell Haberkorn

Thank you Madam President,

The ALRC welcomes the work and reports of the Rapporteurs on freedom of expression and extra-judicial killings. We welcome the Pakistani government’s agreement to a visit by the mandate on freedom of expression. As detailed in an ALRC written statement submitted to this session, Pakistan remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. The ALRC documented the killing of 16 journalists and injuring of 46 others in the first eleven months of 2011, of which five were allegedly abducted and killed by the state intelligence agencies. Senior journalist Mr. Saleem Shahzad, the Pakistan Bureau Chief of the Asia Times Online, was abducted on May 29, 2011, and was subsequently killed, having exposed an Al-Qaida network operating within the Pakistan Navy. He had received death threats from the intelligence agencies. Despite the Supreme Court instituting a commission of inquiry into this killing in June 2011, those responsible have not been identified and held to account.

This illustrates a wider pattern of arbitrary arrests or abductions, forced disappearances and torture, following which victims are surfaced dead. In Balochistan Province alone, between July 2010 and October 2011, the ALRC documented 215 such extra-judicial killings. Journalists, teachers, political activists, students and human rights defenders have been targeted in particular.

Concerning Thailand, the ALRC would like to highlight the absence of full and transparent information on the number of prosecutions under Article 112 of the Criminal Code and the 2007 Computer Crimes Act. Information released by the Office of the Judiciary indicates a rise in the number of complaints filed under Article 112 between 2005 and 2010, from 33 to 478, however whether or not these led to prosecutions remains unavailable, and contributes to the atmosphere of fear in the country. Evidence from several cases, including Amphon Tangnoppakul, who died in custody on 8 May 2012, and Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, indicate that individuals convicted of violating these laws experience a lack of access to medical care and abuse in prison. The last six months have seen a rise in online, verbal, and physical threats made against advocates of reform. Within this context, your request to visit Thailand should be granted by the government without delay.

June 26 AMSA-Philippines Solidarity Statement for the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

June 26 AMSA-Philippines Solidarity Statement for the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

This day, as the world remembers and honors those who have fallen and survived the menace of torture and ill humane treatment, we AMSA Philippines stand in solidarity with individuals, communities and organizations and to all human rights defenders working against torture.

Torture is the prodigious nemesis of the realization of human rights. It carts off the very essence of human being  - destroying the dignity, will and well-being of the individual and impugns the reason of existence.

Torture had long been denounced by civil communities. Significant works has been established by various entities to curtail the perils of torture and ensure redress for the victims and adequate compensation for its effects.

IRCT Statement for a global reading on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, 26 June 2012

STATEMENTS & DECLARATIONS
IRCT Statement for a global reading on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, 26 June 2012

Today marks the UN International Day in Support of the Victims of Torture. It provides us with an opportunity to honour the victims and survivors of torture, and for us all, survivors of torture and their allies, to stand in solidarity.

Despite its absolute prohibition torture continues to be a global phenomenon: both physical and psychological torture. Torture is today prevalent in over half the world’s countries. This is a disgrace in the twenty-first century.

Its victims are men, women – often targeted by rape and other sexual torture, and also, children. Torture victims are disproportionately from marginalized groups, in particular the poor, but also women and minority groups.

June 25, 2011 Worldwide prayer for all victims of torture, Prayers for Tatay Umbrero

In Commemoration
of the June 26  International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
We invite you to join us in a Worldwide prayer for all victims of torture.

 

June 25, 2011, Saturday

2:00 p.m.

Most Holy Trinity Parish, Balic-balic, Sampaloc, Manila

This is part of the “S.O.S. Free Tatay Umbrero Now! Free All Political Prisoners!” (Tatay Umbrero is a Political Prisoner suffering stage 4 Cancer)

BASTA! Run Against Torture! (BRAT V)

 

Friday,  June 24, 2011

ASSEMBLY: 700 – 730 AM in front of the Department of Interior and Local Government Building (Mapagmahal St. corner EDSA)

Route: EDSA (in front of DILG) – East Ave. – QC Elliptical Road –PhilCOA – Commonwealth – Commission on Human Rights

700 runners from the United Against Torture Coalition (UATC),

Commission on Human Rights (CHR) ,Presidential Human Rights Committee,

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Justice (DOJ),

Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)

For more information, please contact Mei Orias of Amnesty International Philippines through the following contact numbers: mobile – 09996282066 / landline – 4338100 / email – meiorias@amnesty.org.ph

Join us in a Worldwide prayer for all victims of torture - TFDP

Re: In Commemoration of the June 26  International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
We invite you to join us in a Worldwide prayer for all victims of torture
“Prayers for Tatay Umbrero, prayers for all victims of torture.”
June 25, 2011, Saturday

Dear Friends

Warm greetings!

June 26, 2011 is the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.  The Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) will join other human rights organizations around the world in commemorating this event through series of activities that would support all victims and campaign to help end this human rights violation. 

In line with this, TFDP together with representative from our international partner ACAT, an ecumenical association founded in France in 1974, will be holding a liturgy on June 25, 2011, Saturday, as part of ACAT’s worldwide call for all Christians to pray for torture victims.  

Particularly we are praying for Tatay Mariano Umbrero, a 65 year old political prisoner in New Bilibid Prison (NBP). Tatay Umbrero is suffering stage 4 Lung Cancer and we have been sending our appeals to the government for his immediate release but we have not received favorable response from government agencies that is just and appropriate for his condition. 

The event’s title will be “Prayers for Tatay Umbrero, prayers for all victims of torture.” 

In this light, we would like to invite you to join us in this liturgy on June 25, 2011, venue and time will be announced as soon as finalized. It will be attended by members of the human rights community including former political prisoners and relatives of victims of political incarceration and torture.  

We hope you can join us in this simple but meaningful activity for Tatay Umbrero, all polititical prisoners and victims of torture worldwide.

Thank you very much.


For human rights we remain,
TASK FORCE DETAINEES OF THE PHILIPPINES