Thursday, November 18, 2010

A Resolution Calling for the Immediate Release Of the 43 Community Health Workers in the Philippines

by Raymund B Villanueva on Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 5:14am

(Proposed by Raymund B. Villanueva, Kodao Productions, Philippines)

In February 6, 2010, soldiers and police arrested 43 community health workers in the Philippines on the basis of a faulty warrant. The community health practitioners were blindfolded, taken to a military camp, held incommunicado and severely tortured by the Philippine Army. In the past nine months, two of the victims have already given birth under detention.

AMARC hereby expresses its solidarity to our fellow community development workers. Like community broadcasters community health workers provide for a basic human right, particularly in poor, marginalized, disaster-prone areas and areas of conflict.

The new Philippine government has recognized that the arrest was highly irregular. This admission of irregularity was made by no less than Philippine President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III following a thorough investigation by the Philippine Department of Justice and global condemnation.

Under humanitarian, if not legal and moral considerations, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters strongly supports the global campaign for the immediate release of our fellow community development workers, the Morong 43 health workers.

(Passed unanimously as the third resolution of AMARC 10 General Assembly, La Plata, Argentina, 13 November 2010.)

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About AMARC:

AMARC is an international non-governmental organization serving the community radio movement in over 110 countries, and advocating for the right to communicate at the international, national, local and neighbourhood levels. AMARC has an International Secretariat in Montreal. It has regional sections in Africa, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, North America and Asia Pacific and offices in Johannesburg, Buenos Aires, Brussels, and Kathmandu. For more information, please contact Suman Basnet, Regional Coordinator for Asia-Pacific, suman_basnet@asiapacific.amarc.org or visit www.asiapacific.amarc.org.

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