Roundtable Discussion on Human Rights in the Philippines

Tim participated in a round table discussion on Human Rights in the Philippines on September 18, 2007.

Photos taken can be seen on the kalayaancentre.org website.

Here's an excerpt of the communique from the roundtable discussion:

Members from the Filipino community, academics, trade unionists, lawyers, church people, and human rights and social justice advocates came together in Vancouver last September 18 to strategize ways in which Canadians can actively support the struggle for genuine human rights in the Philippines.

Sponsored by the Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR) and organized by the local Vancouver Steering Committee for the Stop the Killings in the Philippines Campaign, the forum gathered ideas about what can be done by Canadians and the Canadian government to pressure the government of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to put an end to the political killings and other human rights violations in the Philippines.
According to the Philippine human rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights), there have been over 885 victims of extra-judicial killings and close to 200 people have been forcibly disappeared since 2001. As well, more than one million people have been displaced because of intensifying militarization....

Tim Louis, a lawyer and Vancouver City Councilor from 1999 to 2005 helped open the general discussion by stating his certainty that the movement for human rights in the Philippines will achieve victory in the long-run because it is based on a social movement that addresses people’s fundamental needs and interests. He also pointed out the particular role that Canadians can have by advocating for Canadian corporate interests in the Philippines to consider human rights violations in the Philippines.