Asia-Pacific rights lawyers to meet in RP

Human rights lawyers from the Asia and the Pacific will convene in Pasay City next week to tackle upholding human rights amid global economic crisis and conflict. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said the 5th Conference of Lawyers in Asia-Pacific (COLAP) will be held at SMX Convention Center in Pasay City September 18 and 19. “Some 300 lawyers, law students, paralegal officers, and legal luminaries, local and foreign, will gather for the conference, bearing the theme ‘Human Rights and Peace Amidst Global Economic Crisis and Conflict.’ Joining them are representatives from different human rights organizations as well as some members of the academe, advancing the cause of the protection of, and respect, for human rights," the CBCP said in its news site. Organized by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), the meet is expected to have Vice President Jejomar Binay deliver the welcome remarks. Lawyer Edre Olalia, head of the organizing committee, said delegates will visit the "Morong 43," health workers who were arrested in Morong in Rizal province last February on suspicion of being New People’s Army rebels. He also said they plan to seek an audience with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to express their concern on the Morong 43 case and other political prisoners. Participants expected at the meet include IADL president emeritus Jitendra Sharma (India), IADL president Jeanne Mirer (USA), IADL secretary-general Osamu Niikura (Japan), National Union of People’s Lawyers chairman Judge Romeo Capulong (Philippines), IADL first vice president Roland Weyl (France), anti-Iraq war advocate Luis Roberto Zamora Bolanos (Costa Rica), IADL deputy secretary general Jan Fermon (Belgium), National Lawyers’ Guild (NLG) president David Gespass (USA), civil rights lawyer Leonard Weinglass (USA), women’s rights advocate Nimalka Fernando (Sri Lanka), former Punjab chief justice Vijender Jain (India), attorney general Mahbubey Alam (Bangladesh), IADL representative to the UN in Vienna Evelyn Durmeyer (Austria), and de Lima. The first COLAP was held in 1988 in New Delhi, India. COLAP II was held in Tokyo, Japan in 1991. COLAP III was held in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2001. COLAP IV was held in Seoul, South Korea in 2005. — LBG, GMANews.TV