27 June 2006
United Nations, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Mr. President, Madame High Commissioner, Excellencies, Ladies
and Gentlemen:
Two decades and seven months ago, nine families of disappeared
persons in the Philippines bonded together and decisively
resolved to transform their individual grief, pain and anguish
into courage. They gave birth to FIND (Families of Victims
of Involuntary Disappearance) a nationwide human rights
non-government organization that has steadfastly fought
for justice for the disappeared and their families under
five regimes.
Eventually, in solidarity with other family associations,
it joined the global campaign for the adoption of a legally
binding normative instrument for the protection of all persons
from enforced disappearance. Consistent with the call of
both the Declaration and the draft Convention on Enforced
Disappearance for the enactment of domestic laws criminalizing
enforced disappearance, FIND initiated the filing of an
anti-disappearance bill.
Last month, on the International Week of the Disappeared,
the House of Representatives of the Philippine Congress
through the sponsorship of FIND’s Honorary Chairperson,
approved on third and final reading House Bill No. 4959
that seeks to distinctly define and penalize enforced disappearance.
The proposed law echoes and even improved on many provisions
of the draft international convention on disappearance.
These include among others the:
1) Definition of enforced disappearance and victim;
2) Prohibition of enforced disappearance under all circumstances
and public emergencies;
3) Continuing character of enforced disappearance and limited
application of the statute of limitations;
4) Accountability of commanding officers or superiors of
perpetrators;
5) Access to information about a person deprived of liberty
by all persons with legitimate interest in the information;
6) State protection of all persons involved in the search,
investigation and prosecution of the offense; and
7) Imposing penal sanctions ranging from arresto mayor to
reclusion perpetua, not death.
The adoption by the Council of the draft Convention can
hasten the enactment of the Philippine anti-disappearance
law for which FIND has lobbied for the last eleven years.
The Philippine anti-disappearance bill and the draft Convention
are complementary and mutually reinforcing. However, the
salient provisions of the bill including the giant leap
the Philippine Congress made in repealing the death penalty
law are obliterated by the series of disappearances and
extrajudicial killings mercilessly perpetrated by alleged
State agents. In the first two quarters of this year alone,
25 victims of enforced disappearance have been reported
and documented by FIND. These bring the total number of
reported victims of disappearance under President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo’s administration to 130.
Mr. President, the desaparecidos suffered unimaginable indignities
and unspeakable atrocities in the hands of their captors.
We, their families have long excruciated between hope and
despair in our endless search. Today, there is no place
for despair in our hearts for they are full of hope. Hope
for justice that has been elusive. Hope for impunity to
come to an end. Hope for human dignity to be upheld.
Mr. President, it is not only the temporal eyes of the world
that are now riveted on this august Council, but the spiritual
eyes of thousands upon thousands of desaparecidos all over
the world, including my very own brother, a labor and human
rights lawyer when my country was under martial law. They
are here with us today to bear witness to the adoption by
this Council of a historic and enduring legacy – the International
Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance.
Delivered by:
Nilda L. Sevilla
Co-Chairperson
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