Wednesday, 26 August
5 pm Pacific, 8 pm Eastern, 8 am Philippines time (27 August)
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/768073983995532/
Register for Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_C1nQI26LSbWklJNXDa49yw
Organized by ICHRP – Canada International Coalition for Human Rights of the Philippines

Join our campaign to release all Philippine political prisoners!

WHERE: Online – please pre-register to receive Zoom link!
COST: Free!
WHEN: August 26, 2020 8-9:30pm ET / August 26, 2020 5-6:30pm PT / August 27, 2020 8-9:30am Manila time

SPEAKERS:

Karapatan Alliance Philippines – Philippine human rights situation

Kapatid – Families and Friends of Political Prisoners – Rights and welfare of political prisoners in the Philippines

BAYAN Canada – Perspective of a former political prisoner under Marcos’ Martial Law

ICHRP-Canada International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines – introducing our campaign, aims, and activities

NNARA-Youth – on the campaign to Free Karina, a 19-year-old political prisoner in Negros Occidental, PH

And solidarity messages from:
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

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International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines- Canada (ICHRP-Canada) is launching its Campaign for Release of Philippine Political Prisoners soon. Philippine prisons are extremely high-risk institutions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year the Bureau of Jail Management reported that at nearly 220,000 inmates the prison system was at more than 500% capacity some prisons like the Manila City Jail are more than 600% capacity.

Political prisoners are those imprisoned in response to their political beliefs or activities. There are currently 619 political prisoners languishing in the highly overcrowded Philippine penal system. They represent a broad range of sectors, that include: Labour, Peasants and Farmworkers, Church, Youth-Students, Women, Indigenous Peoples, Journalists, Peace Negotiators, Environmental and Anti Mining Activists and others reflecting the broad range of sectors involved in political struggles against the tyrannical Duterte Regime.

Through the campaign ICHRP will work with organizations in Canada and pair them up with political prisoners from a related sector in the Philippines such as public sector workers. Through the campaign ICHRP will supply organizations with background information and profiles of specific detainees to assist in promotion of the campaign among your membership.

The launch of the campaign will take place via webinar on August 26th, 8pm. Our keynote speaker will be Fides Lim, the General Secretary of Kapatid, the organization of the families of political prisoners in the Philippines. Ms. Lim is the partner of Vicente Ladlad, a senior Peace Negotiator for the National Democratic Front was arrested Nov 8th 2018. That arrest constituted a violation of the agreement on safe conduct and immunity for peace negotiators (JASIG) signed by the Philippine government and the NDFP, an increasingly familiar pattern under the Duterte government.

Zoom registration link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_C1nQI26LSbWklJNXDa49yw

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

We hope you will be able to join us for the launch and that you will participate in our campaign to highlight the injustices of the situation of political detainees. We will be looking to various organizations to help popularize the campaign, supporting it through twitter and other social media platforms, and other communications vehicles with their memberships, and adopting resolutions in support of political detainees in diverse sectors in the Philippines.

If you or your organization would like to make a contribution to the legal defence fund for Philippines Political Prisoners, donations can be made through the United Church of Canada Foundation. Link:
https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/m/50517

If you would like to provide financial support to our campaign here in Canada, donations can be made to ICHRP-Canada at this address:
International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines
2852 Grandeur Ave.
Ottawa, Ontario
K2B 6Y9

The primary goal of our campaign is to generate political support for those wrongly accused in the Philippines and to build momentum for their release while further exposing and isolating the tyrannical Duterte government. We hope you will join us in promoting and supporting this just cause.

About ICHRP-Canada:
International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines- Canada is a national alliance and part of a global network of organizations concerned about the human rights situation in the Philippines. We are committed to campaigning for just and lasting peace in the country. ICHRP-Canada was founded in 2019 to inform Canadians about the grave human rights situation in the Philippines today.