Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I present the report of the Australian parliamentary delegation to the 115th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in Geneva, from 16 to 19 October 2006, and a visit to Portugal, from 20 to 25 October 2006. I seek leave to move a motion to take note of the document.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I would like to bring to the Senate’s attention a particular issue raised at the 115th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly. I encourage all senators to read this detailed report, as it covers the important issues addressed at the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly. The issue I refer to is one which I have raised many times, including at the 114th IPU assembly in Nairobi in May 2006. It is the issue of ongoing human rights abuses in the Philippines—an issue which refuses to go away. When I tabled the report of the 114th IPU assembly, I spoke of the case of Crispin Beltran, a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines. Outlining the situation of Mr Beltran, I detailed how he had been subjected to arrest without warrant and had been continuously detained since February of this year despite successive charges against him being thrown out by the courts. I regret to inform the Senate that months later he still remains in detention—without a valid arrest warrant.

The IPU again investigated the ongoing case of Mr Crispin Beltran, as well as the cases of five other representatives from the Congress of the Philippines. The IPU found a pattern of human rights abuses in the cases of these parliamentarians, and I continue to be deeply concerned that parliamentarians who promote any opposing viewpoints within their own country then have the apparatus of the state used against them. It also expressed concern regarding the absence of proper legal process and the attempts to criminalise democratic opposition in what appears to be purely an attempt to quash that opposition. This finding comes amid continuing violence against all manner of political activists with the suppression of workers, unionists, social justice advocates, political activists and, indeed, church members.

Only weeks ago, the Filipino government came under increasing international criticism for failing to stop political violence, with the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce, JFC, in the Philippines, an umbrella organisation of business groups from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Korea calling on the President to stop the violence. Democracy is under threat in the Philippines. Since Gloria Arroyo, the President of the Philippines, came to power in January 2001, over 700 civilians, including trade union leaders, environmentalists, lawyers, municipal councillors and journalists, have been killed. Amongst the dead are pastors, priests and lay members of the various churches in the Philippines. In addition to this, many more activists have had threats made against them or assassination attempts made on their lives.

Amnesty International points out that one national human rights organisation has documented 4,207 cases of human rights violations since 2001, which include killings, enforced disappearances, illegal arrests and unlawful detention, indiscriminate firings and forcible evacuation. The common factor in all of these cases is that the victims have been outspoken on issues of poverty and justice. They have advocated for the poor and oppressed people in the Philippines, for workers’ rights, civil liberties and human rights. Very few of these crimes have been adequately investigated and the perpetrators have not been brought to justice. This is despite the Philippines being a signatory to a number of international treaties protecting human rights and having the protection of human rights enshrined in legislation. The IPU remains deeply concerned regarding the rights of parliamentarians given the facts outlined in this report. I am concerned not only for the rights of parliamentarians but for the rights of all people to participate freely and without fear in an open and democratic process. Sadly this has ceased to be the case in the Philippines.

Also, while I was at the IPU, I was given the honour of co-convening an international group of parliamentarians advocating for human rights within the Philippines. I jointly convened that with Congressman Satur Ocampo from the Philippino congress. We received widespread interest from international parliamentarians while we were at the IPU conference and we have agreed to continue that work. We will meet again at the next IPU meeting and continue to advocate in our own parliaments, to raise public awareness within our own countries and internationally and to continue to lobby the Filipino government to take human rights seriously and fulfil their international and domestic obligations. I will continue to make representations to the government of the Philippines, our own parliament and the IPU on this matter until there is a successful outcome. I recommend this delegation report to the Senate.

Question agreed to.