Philippines Govt. Urged To Remove More Names From Terror List - UN Refugees Commission

Philippines Govt. Urged to Remove More Names From Terror List - UN Refugees Commission

The government of the Philippines needs to remove human rights defenders and activists from an official petition describing them as terrorists, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a news release on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2018) The government of the Philippines needs to remove human rights defenders and activists from an official petition describing them as terrorists, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a news release on Monday.

"[W]e are still deeply concerned about the continued naming of many others, including human rights defenders, in the petition, as this tags them as terrorists," UN special rapporteurs Michel Forst and Dainius Puras said in the release.

Forst and Puras were referring to a ruling declaring UN Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples rights Victoria Tauli-Corpuz was a non-party to Manilas recent petition naming the New Peoples Army and the Communist Party of the Philippines as terrorist organizations, the release said.

The Regional Trial Court of Manila removed Tauli-Corpuz on 27 July from a list of more than 600 people accusing them of being terrorists and alleged members of the two groups, the UNHCR noted.

The inclusion of Ms Tauli-Corpuz was considered as an act of retaliation for public comments she had made about the Philippines in her mandate as Special Rapporteur, the release said.