Annual General Meeting 2015 Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines

CAMPAIGN FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS IN
THE PHILIPPINES

09 March 2016

Report on Activities 2015

CHRP held regular meetings every six weeks throughout the year and
through its volunteers maintained its web site www.chrp.org.uk. A regular
stream of urgent actions in support of victims of human rights abuses were
also emailed to members and supporters.
In 2015 CHRPs activities mainly spotlighted the activities of British
multinational mining companies committing abuses against indigenous
peoples in the Philippines.

Campaign for Human Rights in the

Philippines
RE PORT ON ACT IVIT IE S 2015

Project on Glencore-Xstrata
CHRP participated in a joint project with War On Want and UNISON, along with its partner in
the Philippines, the environmental group Kalikasan (Peoples Network for the Environment).
This focused on the activities of Glencore-Xstrata, owner of a controlling stake in the
Tampakan mining project which planned to build a huge copper and gold mine in Mindanao,
southern Philippines.
These operations threatened to displace thousands of people and destroy 10,000 hectares
including precious areas of rainforest. Security forces have committed atrocities against local
B'laan indigenous communities which have opposed the project.
On 7 May, around 20 CHRP
activists
joined
with
other
organisations to picket the
Glencore
Headquarters
in
Mayfair. This was part of a
coordinated international protest
against the company on the date
of
its corporate AGM in
Switzerland.
On 16 May, a public meeting and
showing of Glencores Deadly
Mine - a documentary made by
the joint project, took place at the
Unison
Centre.
Speakers
included Gloria Holguin of Pensamiento y Accion Social in Colombia where Glencore-Xstrata
also has operations, and via video link Enteng Bautista of Kalikasan Peoples Network for the
Environment. The film is now available for viewing on Youtube. (Search Glencores Deadly
Mine.)

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Annual General Meeting 2015 Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines

Glencore forced to pull out

On 17 August, Glencore-Xstrata announced it was pulling out of the project. The Philippines
press cited stiff opposition from local community organisations and international campaign
groups which was delaying government approval, as main reason for this decision.
International Peoples Conference on Mining
On 30 July to 1 August, environmental advocates, campaigners, and grassroots leaders
worldwide attended the International Peoples Conference on Mining 2015 (IPCM) in Quezon
City, Philippines with the theme Highlighting peoples lives and struggles in defense of rights,
the environment and a common future: An international conference of mining communities and
peoples.
CHRP sent 5 delegates to the conference. Our founding member Andrew Whitmore of CHRP
and PIPLinks was one of the keynote presenters providing a background on international
mining.
Tolpuddle Festival
In July, CHRP ran a stall at the Tolpuddle Festival
in Dorset which commemorates the early
struggles of the British trade union movement.
The stall highlighted abuses of trade union rights
and union struggles in the Philippines.

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Global Weeks of Action for Mindanao

On 21-23 November CHRP sponsored a visit to the UK of Sister Famita Somogod of the Rural
Missionaries of the Philippines and Professor Arnold Alamon from the Mindanao Interfaith
Institute on Lumad Studies to speak on the plight and resistance of the Lumad indigenous
peoples in the face of the militarisation largely as a result of which accompanies the operations
of multinational mining companies.

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Annual General Meeting 2015 Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines

Public meetings were held in UNISON Centre and at St Johns Church in Notting Hill,
organised in coordination with the Kanlungan Filipino Consortium and the UNISON-Filipino
Activists Network. A meeting with Amnesty International was also held.
These meetings were the first in a series of actions and events in Europe being held over a
two or three weeks period coordinated by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the
Philippines (ICHRP), and which focused on human rights abuses in Mindanao.

Migrant Workers in the UK

CHRP links the struggles of workers in the Philippines closely to the struggles of migrant
workers from the Philippines in the UK and Europe, and coordinates closely with Kanlungan
Filipino Consortium which brings together Filipino migrant groups and the UNISON Filipino
Activists Network. On 20 December, CHRP supported the Festival of Empowerment organised
by Kanlungan and held at ITF House in Borough.

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