From now until 29 February 2012, do something to urge the authorities to reveal where they are being held and immediately release them!

Who are the three young men?

Nahir Ahung, Rasbi Kasaran (18 years old), and Yusoph Mohammad (18 years old) were teachers at a madraseh (Islamic school). Rasbi Kasaran and Yusoph Mohammad both live in Cambug village in Al-barka municipality where there is a Moro Islamic Liberation Front camp.

What happened to them?

While the Philippine military routinely denies involvement in any case of enforced disappearance, in previous years, our friends at AI have documented the military's use of enforced disappearance against activists, suspected fighters and supporters of insurgent groups.

According to a local credible source, the three men were taken by military intelligence agents after they flew in to the Manila domestic airport terminal from Zamboanga City on 3 January 2012 and they haven’t been heard or seen since then.

According to a reliable source, the arrest of the three men comes weeks after the Armed Forces of the Philippines filed 300 “John Doe” (unnamed) complaint affidavits against 300 residents of Cambug village. In a “John Doe” complaint affidavit or warrant, the authorities do not give the name of the subject of the complaint or arrest.  Because such documents can be used against anyone, they have led to arbitrary arrest and detention.

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“August is the month dedicated for the promotion and protection of the Indigenous Peoples’ rights. In August 9, we celebrate the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. This is a good opportunity for young people across the globe to advance the goal of fortifying an international solidarity for the solution of the problems faced by the indigenous peoples. This is an opportunity for youth to stand up and demand that government ensures that indigenous peoples are free to exercise their rights to health, education and social and economic development.

From August 2009 to January this year, Asia Pacific Youth Network in the Philippines facilitated the (((Youth Poses for Dignity))) where more than 2000 youth voices (in the form of photos), including some 90 from indigenous young people themselves, were collected. These 2000 plus (((Youth Poses for Dignity))) which focus on the call for the respect of Indigenous Peoples’ rights are collated into collages. Above are some of the final product.

We invite you to be part of our advocacy and make this world a place where a genuine respect for human rights is present.”

And here’s a great film of developed by friends at AI Philippines:‘Like You, We have Rights Too. Young Indigenous Peoples – Voices of the Young Indigenous Peoples’

part one: part two: 

& a shout out to our friends at the Asia Pacific Indigenous Youth Network

In the Philippines, the government’s policies on sexual and reproductive health services, in practice limit the opportunities of women to have control over whether and when to become pregnant and effectively deny them enjoyment of their sexual and reproductive rights. Women living in poverty are the most affected by these policies, which fail to support them in preventing mistimed or unwanted pregnancies, drive them further into poverty, and lead to harm to their health and wellbeing.

Government policies prioritise ‘natural’ family planning methods (periodic abstinence or withdrawal). Abortion is a crime in all circumstances. The Catholic Church strongly influences the government’s policy on contraception, leading the government, for instance, to ban the emergency contraceptive Postinor in 2001 as a result of scientifically false claims that Postinor induces abortion.

The example of Manila illustrates how, in the absence of national legislation regarding reproductive health, local government policy can lead to denial of access to reproductive health information and services. In 2000, an executive order by the mayor of Manila promoting ‘natural’ family planning led to an end to the provision of free condoms and contraceptive pills at city health centres and hospitals.

Denial of access to contraception provided free of charge by the government hits a larger number of individuals at a time of economic crisis which results in prices of all goods and commodities rising, impacting disproportionately on women.

Three quarters of sexually active adolescents do not use any contraceptive method. Even though many of them may be unwilling and ill unprepared to become parents, many do not have adequate information on how to prevent pregnancy. One in four girls and women begin childbearing before they reach the age of 20. 20% of Filipino women who die a maternal death are teenagers, and in 17% of foetal deaths the mother is a teenager.

According to the government, 400,000 Filipino women resort to clandestine abortions each year, though other estimates are higher. Many abortions are carried out by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards or both.  According to the latest estimates, around 800 women per year die from complications of unsafe abortion. The government also states that 17 percent of women aged 15-24 have had at least one abortion. According to research from 2006, 54% of women who end an unintended pregnancy by abortion were not using any family planning method when they conceived. Three-fourths of those using contraception at that time were using a ‘natural’ or folk family planning method.

About ten Filipino women die everyday from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, according to the Senate of the Philippines. Fourteen per cent of all deaths of Filipino women aged 15-49 are maternal deaths. The national maternal mortality ratio is 162 per 100,000 live births but for some regions the figures are much higher. The Philippines will likely not meet its Millennium Development targets on maternal mortality reduction. The large majority of the women affected live in poverty and are in the prime of their lives.

Likhaan is one of the organizations working at the grassroots level with women in marginalised communities to make reproductive rights real. The organisation runs community-based primary health care projects directed at women and young people. Helping women to organize their own advocacy for access to health care, Likhaan lobbies health policy makers to become responsive to the needs and rights of people in marginalised communities. The organisation also raises health care providers’ awareness of the rights of the women and trains them in the provision of women-centred primary health care. The organisation’s priority concerns for advocacy include access to contraception, maternal health, sexual and reproductive health services for young people, post-abortion care, therapeutic abortion and making the health system equitable.

In 2008, 20 people from some of Manila’s poorest communities, both men and women, filed a constitutional challenge against the Manila mayor’s executive order on family planning, relying on the findings of research by Likhaan and the Center for Reproductive Rights on how this order leads to violations of women’s human rights.

Likhaan and a broad range of other organisations and individuals are advocating for the government to pass a Reproductive Health Bill aimed at helping women avoid unplanned, mistimed and unwanted pregnancy. The Bill promotes both natural and modern family planning methods and post-abortion care as well as various maternal health measures and reproductive health education. A recent legislative victory for women’s human rights, the ‘Magna Carta of Women of the Philippines’ of August 2009, which requires the government to take measures towards the substantive equality of women and men, also has implications for women’s reproductive rights: in accordance with this law, discriminatory laws affecting women have to be amended or repealed within three years.

“What is also part of poverty is that people lack confidence in themselves. They do not see their social institutions as responding to them. They don’t know how to deal with social institutions. They do not have the skills that will make the local government officials or local government agencies accountable to their needs. It doesn’t matter if people are poor, in poor communities. They deserve the best possible health service that we can give then”, says Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, Likhaan co-founder and Chair of the Board. “Poverty is not a reason for second-grad health service.”

‘Filipino women claiming reproductive rights’ video highlights a broad range of sexual and reproductive rights issues in the Philippines through the lens of Likhaan’s work. The video is based on interviews with Likhaan activists and service providers, and women who have received the organization’s services. The women speak about both the transformative power of reproductive rights activism for women in marginalized communities and the challenges they encounter at family, community and government level.

We  support the work by Likhaan and other organizations that work for gender equality, sexual and reproductive rights and effective participation in decision-making and their call on the government to pass the Reproductive Health Bill and undertake all other measures required for individuals’ enjoyment of their reproductive rights.

How you can help？

• If you are on facebook, support the cause of James Balao here:http://apps.facebook.com/causes/342556?m=de0957a2
• Or you can participate into a photo petition. Take photos of friends holding signs asking “Where is James Balao?” and send them by email to us
  
  
  By submitting it will be understood that you give Amnesty International & APYN permission to add your photos to this petition.

The whereabouts of James Balao

On 19 January 2009, the Regional Trial Court in La Trinidad, Benguet province, ruled that the authorities must disclose the whereabouts of abducted Indigenous people’s rights activist James Balao immediately. However, the ruling does not grant permission for his relatives and their representatives to inspect places of detention where he may be held, nor does it compel the authorities to hand over documents relating to his case, or offer protection to those who witnessed his abduction.


The Court’s ruling was in response to a writ of amparo filed by relatives on 9 October 2008, in an effort to establish what happened to James Balao, one of the founders of theIndigenous people’s organization, theCordillera People’s Alliance (CPA). James Balao disappeared on 17 September in La Trinidad town, northern Philippines. Witnesses have told the CPA that they saw him being abducted by armed men, who claimed that they were from the police. The CPA has also said that they had been informed that James Balao is still alive and is being held by state security forces at an unknown location. He is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

The 13-page decision on the writ of amparo directed the authorities to “disclose where James Balao is detained or confined, to release James Balao considering his unlawful detention since his abduction, and to cease and desist from further inflicting harm upon his person.”

The Court further stated that: the “abduction came at a time when the government is engaged in an all-out war against its perceived enemies, which has resulted in unabated extrajudicial killings, abductions, political persecution…”, that “the investigation was very limited, superficial and one-sided”, and that “on record is evidence pointing to the more likely than not motive for James Balao’s disappearance—his activist/political leanings.”

However, while the Court’s statements were welcome, the fact that it did not permit the inspection of places of detention, witness protection or the presentation of state documents on James Balao’s security and whereabouts; and the fact that the Court took three months to rule on the writ of amparo, have denied James Balao the protection that should have been granted immediately.

Meanwhile, U.N. aid chief John Holmes says the United Nations is preparing for some half a million people to flee Pakistan’s northwest region of Waziristan if the government mounts a big operation against Taliban militants there. In an interview with AlertNet, he also warned that a slow response from international donors to the U.N.’s appeal is putting the humanitarian response at risk, with some aid agencies saying they can only continue their operations for a few more weeks without further funding. And Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group warns that unless relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in Pakistan+IBk-s Northwest Frontier Province are urgently improved, the army+IBk-s offensive risks leaving the extremists the ultimate winners.

SRI LANKA CONFLICT:
Sri Lanka has sent more than 2,000 people back to their home villages in the island nation’s northwest, two years after they were displaced by the war with the Tamil Tiger separatists. The resettlement is only the second to happen since Sri Lanka’s military finished off the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and declared total victory in a 25-year war on May 18. Sri Lanka now has nearly 300,000 people living in refugee camps, and has pledged to resettle the bulk of them in six months. The United Nations stands ready to support an inquiry into abuses in Sri Lanka’s civil war, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said while addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council. And Human Rights Watch has asked the Colombo government to ensure the defeat of the Tamil Tigers does not result in new “disappearances”, unlawful killings or the jailing of government critics.

PHILIPPINES-MINDANAO CONFLICT:
The Philippines is discouraging aid agencies from distributing large amounts of food to internally displaced families on the restive southern island of Mindanao to prevent rice supplies being handed to rebels. Separately, Muslim rebels have freed a Sri Lankan aid worker held captive for nearly four months in the southern Philippines, but they continue to hold an Italian Red Cross engineer, a senior navy commander says.

AFGHAN TURMOIL:
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered his government to begin work on plans to control operations by foreign troops in a bid to stop rising numbers of civilian casualties, his office says. The rising civilian death toll as Afghan and foreign troops battle a growing Taliban insurgency has become a politically explosive issue, eroding support for Karzai’s government, its foreign backers and coalition troops.