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MAG envisions a society where fundamental human rights are upheld and protected at all times in accordance with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights

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30-05-2012

Torture in the Philippines was among the primary focuses of the United Nations Human Rights Council during the country’s Universal Periodic Review yesterday.

 

More than 15 states focused on torture in their recommendations to improve human rights in the Philippines. These recommendations include:

  • that the Government of the Philippines effectively implements the 2009 Anti-Torture Act, with a particular focus on ensuring that all investigations and prosecutions of allegations of torture and ill-treatment fully cover the possibility of command responsibility as stipulated in section 13 of the Act; and that all alleged victims of torture and ill-treatment have effective access to a medical evaluation of their injuries by institutionalising the use of the Istanbul Protocol, including by providing guidelines to judges, prosecutors, forensic doctors and medical personnel dealing with detained persons, to detect and document physical and psychological trauma of torture;
  • that the Government of the Philippines effectively implement the anti torture act with a special focus on responsibility of superior officers, access to a medical examination and the establishment of a sufficiently resourced rehabilitation programme for torture victims.

 

One of the main objectives of the second cycle of the UPR is to follow up to recommendations from the first UPR cycle; another objective is to ensure that recommendations are increasingly concrete and focused to promote implementation and facilitate monitoring and evaluation of these efforts.

 

The IRCT would like to commend the governments of Denmark and Ireland for making clear, concrete and focused recommendations that are highly pertinent to the specific domestic context of the Philippines, and which, if accepted and implemented, will make a real difference for access to justice and rehabilitation for torture victims in the Philippines.

 

The IRCT also welcomes the constructive approach taken by the Government of the Philippines to the UPR as clearly shown in its initiative to establish a multi-stakeholder mechanism to monitor implementation of UPR recommendations. The IRCT encourages the Government of the Philippines to accept all recommendations pertaining to torture and ill-treatment without delay so that the important national implementation work can commence immediately.

 

The Universal Periodic Review, or UPR, is a new mechanism of the United Nations to review the human rights record of all 192 member countries every four years. The Human Rights Council conducts these reviews, which result in recommendations to the state under review of ways in which they shall improve the country’s human rights situation.

Source: http://www.irct.org/media-and-resources/irct-news/show-news.aspx?PID=13767&Action=1&NewsId=3615

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CALLING ALL MAG MEMBERS:


Initial announcement for our 30th Anniversary and 20th General Assembly:


WHEN: 1:00 - 6:00 P.M. October 13, 2012


WHERE: To be announced later (TBAL)


Kindly call our office at 433-1594 / email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / mobile:  0928-905-5920 and look for Dr. Amy Abcede - Head, Membership Committee)

 


Health and Human Rights for All!

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Statement

Medical Action Group (MAG) response to the nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

The abolition of nuclear weapons is a fundamental human right in a democratic world.

The Medical Action Group (MAG), a member of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) is deeply concerned over the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DRPK).

As an organization of doctors and medical professionals in the Philippines, we deplore the production, testing, possession, deployment and use of nuclear weapons in view of their health and environmental effects.

The World Health Assembly adopted a resolution in 1983 asserting that “nuclear weapons constitute the greatest immediate threat to the health and survival of mankind.” The World Medical Association (WMA) condemned nuclear weapons in 1998, and just renewed its call for their elimination at the WMA annual meeting in Seoul, in October 2009.

In 1984 the United Nations Human Rights Committee noted that "It is evident that the designing, testing, manufacture, possession, deployment and use of nuclear weapons are among the greatest threats to the right to life which confront mankind today," and concluded that "The production, testing, possession, deployment and use of nuclear weapons should be prohibited and recognized as crimes against humanity."[1]

The nuclear war and security policy based on the capability to threaten the use of nuclear weapons is antithesis of health as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The actual human cost of the nuclear arms race will never be known. Many of the individual cases of health problems and deaths likely to be caused by the nuclear weapons cycle are difficult to link to it. Radioactive elements enter the body furtively and do their damage secretly leaving no business cards. They will continue their rampage until they are exhausted, which for some radioactive elements, will be over a hundred thousand years from now.

MAG with the IPPNW calls for increased contact and communication with the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and will work with our affiliate, the Korean Anti-Nuke Peace Physicians (KANPP) towards that end. We also call on all parties to show restraint so that this situation does not escalate into a military confrontation.

MAG is one with the IPPNW in the campaign for the elimination of all nuclear weapons and that “the double standard by which some states have claimed that nuclear weapons are essential to their security while denying that right to others is both reprehensible and unsustainable. The urgent need for a global nuclear-weapon-free zone through the negotiation and adoption of a Nuclear Weapons Convention is the real lesson of this unfortunate decision by a tragically isolated state.”

In solidarity,

Petronilo Pascual, M.D.

Chairperson

Medical Action Group

April 27, 2012

[1] Human Rights Committee General Comment 13 (23) on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, November 2, 1984.

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MEDIA ADVISORY

April 20, 2012

#RememberML@40!

 

Join us this Saturday (April 21, 2012)

@ 7a.m. – 10a.m.

U.P. Diliman – Sunken Garden

PAHRA (Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates), families of Martial Law victims and other Human Rights Defenders will gather to Inform, Inspire and to Remember Martial Law 40 years after it was first declared on September 21, 1972 by the ousted Ferdinand Marcos.

This activity is a continuation of our national campaign to Remember ML @ 40. Every 21st of the month, from March 21 until September 21 of this year,we shall strive to have our country’s younger generation remember thedark years of the  martial law period through a series ofjogging-running-walking-biking-kite flying, and sharing activities.

The overall aim of this campaign is to compel the Philippine Congress to urgently pass the Compensation Bill for Victims of Human Rights Violation almost three decades after the Marcos Dictatorship was forcefully terminated through a successful People’s Power Uprising on February 25, 1986.

please refer also to our on-line campaign

facebook : #RememberML@40

For more information and/or details, please contact:

Mr. RASTI DELIZO (PAHRA-Campaigns Staff Volunteer)

@celfone #: 099908092461/office #: 436-26-33