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More than six years behind bars without trial – and counting.

The case of former Senator Leila de Lima in the Philippines is staggering. Even after she was acquitted of most of the politically motivated charges brought against her, a court denied her bail yet again this week. 

This unjust nonsense has been going on for more than six years.

It started in 2016, when then-President Rodrigo Duterte directed de Lima’s persecution in response to her attempts to investigate Duterte’s killing spree by security forces. These thousands of killings – which Duterte called a “war on drugs” – amount to crimes against humanity.

De Lima had been a long-time critic of Duterte’s slaughter. In the late 2000s, as chair of the Commission on Human Rights, she began an investigation into killings attributed to a “death squad” operating in Davao City, where Duterte was the mayor.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating those killings as well as numerous “drug war” murders that took place while Duterte was president. In 2019, as part of his efforts to avoid international justice, Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC’s Rome Statute, which obligates states to cooperate with the court.

But let’s get back to the de Lima affair and the three bogus, drug-related charges against her specifically. She was acquitted in the first case against her in 2021, and just last month, she was acquitted in the second case. Both cases were clearly fabricated, and there’s no reason to think the third case against her is any more credible.

Yet, despite the clearly political nature of these cases, the courts keep denying de Lima bail, and for more than six years she’s been in “pretrial detention.”

And the worst part of this whole story is not even the outrageous persecution of de Lima. It’s the ongoing crimes by state security forces she was trying to stop.

As I’ve noted in this newsletter before, the killings continue in the Philippines. There has been no letup in summary executions by police in the “drug war” since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office almost one year ago. We’re still seeing the arbitrary arrest, torture, and forced disappearance of activists, journalists, trade unionists, and critics of the government.

When will this state dysfunction and state-sponsored slaughter in the Philippines finally end?

(written by Lisa Maier)

Between 1904 and 1908, German colonizers killed tens of thousands of Ovaherero and Nama people during their occupation of Namibia.  

The atrocities have been described as “the forgotten genocide” of the early 20th Century, in what was then known as German South West Africa. 

After years-long negotiations the government finally recognized the genocide and agreed to pay reparations. 

But how do you put a number to the unspeakable atrocities committed during a genocide?

A first step would naturally be to ask and involve the affected communities. 

When starting the negotiations in 2021, both the German and Namibian governments promised Indigenous Nama and Ovaherero would have the right to participate and represent themselves in a joint declaration. 

But the declaration was negotiated without any affected groups’ participation, and they – not unreasonably – refused to recognize it. 

Now, seven UN Special Rapporteurs expressed grave concern at both governments’ failure to ensure the right to meaningful participation. 

This should be a wake-up call to both governments and lead them to reverse course and guarantee a reparation negotiation process that centers affected communities and their rights to full reparations for ongoing harms inflicted by Germany’s colonial crimes. 

Faith groups across North America have come together to launch the new Apartheid Free Communities Initiative, aiming to help end the Israeli authorities’ crime of apartheid.

Israel’s apartheid is well-known and well-documented. Israeli authorities systematically privilege Jewish Israelis and repress Palestinians with the objective of maintaining the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians. 

American Christians are increasingly recognizing the immorality of this systematic repression.

In 2021, the United Church of Christ’s General Synod became one of the first denominations to pass a resolution recognizing “Israel’s apartheid system of laws and legal procedures” and affirming that the “continued oppression of the Palestinian people remains … a matter of theological urgency.”

Since then, several other denominational, state, and local religious bodies such as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, Vermont, and Chicago have followed suit.

The new coalition was convened by the Quaker-inspired American Friends Service Committee and unites over 100 congregations and groups in an interdenominational campaign.

Together, they will provide important voices to help educate the public on the reality of human rights abuses experienced by Palestinians every day.

(compiled by Aiza Rodrigues Akhtar)

• South Sudan Ratifies Crucial African Women’s Rights Treaty (HRW) 
• For Afghan women, fashion and crafts offer a work lifeline (The New Humanitarian) 
• Rohingya in Bangladesh protest to be sent home after UN aid cut (Al Jazeera) 
• EU agrees radical reforms on migration and asylum laws (The Guardian)

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In the latest episode of our new weekly podcast, Rights & Wrongs, my colleague discuss Vietnam’s crackdowns.

Watch and listen here.