The International Peace Observers Network (IPON) is an independent, non-violent human rights, non-profit organization based in Hamburg, Germany. It monitors the human rights situation in the Philippines and works to protect human rights defenders. [1] IPON aims to create an environment where human rights are respected and human rights groups are able to undertake their work in a secure environment free from threats, violence, and repression. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Upon request, international volunteers, who work as peaceworkers, accompany groups of human rights defenders (HRD) in the Philippines, currently in the islands of Luzon, Negros, and Mindanao. Information gathered in conflict areas is analyzed by observers and brought to the attention of the international public. "This way the international pressure on the Philippines to guarantee human rights rises. The publication of human rights violations will finally lead to their decrease and prevention." [6]
The work of IPON started in 2006.
Red-baiting, also known as reductio ad Stalinum and red-tagging, is an intention to discredit the validity of a political opponent and the opponent's logical argument by accusing, denouncing, attacking, or persecuting the target individual or group as anarchist, communist, Marxist, socialist, Stalinist, or fellow travelers towards these ideologies. In the phrase, red refers to the color that traditionally symbolized left-wing politics worldwide since the 19th century, while baiting refers to persecution, torment, or harassment, as in baiting.
The Akbayan Citizens' Action Party, better known as Akbayan, is a democratic socialist and progressive political party in the Philippines. Akbayan is noted as a leading member of the progressive movement in the Philippines, having been formed in 1998 by a variety of progressive political organizations.
The New People's Army is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). It acts as the CPP's principal organization, aiming to consolidate political power from what it sees as the present "bourgeois reactionary puppet government" and to aid in the "people's democratic revolution". Founded on March 29, 1969, by the collaboration of Jose Maria Sison and former members of the Hukbalahap led by Bernabe Buscayno, the NPA has since waged a guerrilla war based on the Maoist strategy of protracted people's war. The NPA is one of the key figures in the ongoing communist rebellion in the Philippines, the longest ongoing conflict in the country.
The Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP), also known as Philippine Democratic Socialist Party, is a political party in the Philippines. It is one of the member parties that composed the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO) that supported the candidacy of Corazon Aquino and Salvador Laurel in the 1986 Snap Elections against President Ferdinand Marcos.
Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) is an international nongovernmental organization that employs Unarmed Civilian Protection. Their mission is to protect civilians in violent conflicts through unarmed strategies, build peace side-by-side with local communities, and advocate for the wider adoption of these approaches to safeguard human lives and dignity. NP holds Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and has been endorsed by nine Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including the Dalai Lama and former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In 2016, Nonviolent Peaceforce was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
The Lumad are a group of Austronesian indigenous peoples in the southern Philippines. It is a Cebuano term meaning "native" or "indigenous". The term is short for Katawhang Lumad, the autonym officially adopted by the delegates of the Lumad Mindanao Peoples Federation (LMPF) founding assembly on 26 June 1986 at the Guadalupe Formation Center, Balindog, Kidapawan, Cotabato. Usage of the term was accepted in Philippine jurisprudence when President Corazon Aquino signed into law Republic Act 6734, where the word was used in Art. XIII sec. 8(2) to distinguish Lumad ethnic communities from the islands of Mindanao.
Human rights in the Philippines are protected by the Constitution of the Philippines, to make sure that people in the Philippines are able to live peacefully and with dignity, safe from the abuse of any individuals or institutions, including the state.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals in the Republic of the Philippines have faced many difficulties in their homeland, such as prejudice, violence, abuse, assault, harassment and other forms of anti-LGBT rhetoric. Many LGBT Filipinos are met with mixed attitudes and reactions by their families, friends and others in their communities, as well as professionals, educators, their national public officials, politicians, attorneys and others working for the government and the rest of the general population.
A peaceworker is an individual or member of an organization that undertakes to resolve violent conflict, prevent the rise of new violent conflicts, and rebuild societies damaged by war.
Mass media in the Philippines consists of several types of media: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, cinema, and websites.
Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society, abbreviated as CBCS, is the largest umbrella civil society organization (CSO) composed of 168 Moro non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and peoples organizations (POs) in Mindanao, Philippines.
Conciliation Resources is an independent, global organisation working with people in conflict to prevent violence and build peace, providing advice, support, and practical resources. It also takes the lessons learned to government decision-makers and others working to end the conflict to improve peacebuilding policies and practice worldwide.
Loretta Ann Pargas Rosales is a Filipina activist, teacher and politician who has served three terms as the party-list representative of the Akbayan Citizens' Action Party to the Philippines' House of Representatives from the 11th-13th Congress (1998-2007). She was the Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights of the Republic of the Philippines from 2010 to 2015.
Akbayan! Youth (A!Y) is the youth wing of the Akbayan Citizens' Action Party, a democratic socialist and progressive political party in the Philippines.
Maradeka is a pro-democracy Islamic political organization which espouses non-violent political action, and is based in the Philippines. The organization has been active against a backdrop of over 40 years of armed Muslim insurgency, mounted by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in their quest for self-rule. These groups emerged following popular dissent with the Philippine government, and their treatment of the Muslim minority as second class citizens, which caused extensive suffering. These years of social, economic, and political inequities are known as the 'Mindanao problem'.
Arlene "Kaka" J. Bag-ao is a Filipino human rights lawyer and agrarian reform advocate who served as Governor of the Dinagat Islands from 2019 to 2022. Bag-ao additionally served as the representative for the lone district of the Dinagat Islands from 2013 until 2019. She has been dubbed as the 'Dragon Slayer' after consecutively defeating two of the most prominent members of the influential Ecleo political dynasty of the Dinagat Islands.
Proclamation No. 216 was the 2017 proclamation of martial law and suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the whole of Mindanao amid clashes between government forces and Maute group terrorists in Marawi, issued by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on May 23, 2017. The state of martial law was extended thrice by Congress at the request of Duterte, citing necessity to quell hostile activities perpetrated by terrorist groups, and ended with the third extension lapsing on December 31, 2019.
The Lakbayan ng Pambansang Minorya is an annual march, rally, and camp-out (kampuhan) by minority peoples of the Philippines, including Lumad, Aeta, Mangyan, Moro, and Igorot, coming from their respective homelands. It is held in Manila and other major cities from October–November, to protest against human rights violations, lack of self-determination, exploitation of ancestral lands, and lack of basic social services within communities of indigenous peoples. The yearly event, which started in 2012, is organized by SANDUGO, with the backing of various militant, progressive, and other allied groups. The participants have been termed as Lakbayani.
In the Philippines, red-tagging is the labeling of individuals or organizations as communists, subversives, or terrorists, regardless of their actual political beliefs or affiliations. It is a type of harassment and has pernicious effects on its targets. Red-tagging has been practiced by security forces, government officials or shills.