As it observed the International Day of the Disappeared on Monday, an alliance of human rights organizations urged President Aquino to criminalize acts of enforced disappearances in accordance with a United Nations’ resolution on the issue.

The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) urged the President to certify as urgent the passage of a bill seeking to make enforced disappearance a crime and the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Crime must be called for it is. The scene of a naked man lying on the floor of the Asuncion Police Station in Tondo and writhing in pain as his penis was repeatedly tugged by PNP Senior Inspector Joselito Binayug was not an action to be condemned merely as a “grave scandal”. A domestic law has already been enacted to comply with the Philippine State’s obligation in ratifying the U.N. Convention Against Torture. Binayug must be charged with the perpetration of torture and punished with the full force of the law by his blatant violation of R.A. 9745 (The Anti-Torture Law).

“Today, as we remember the victims of the brutal Ampatuan killing spree, we also remember the killing of key witness Suwaib Upham who perished before justice was served to the Maguindanao victims,” said Max de Mesa, Chairperson of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA).

In the ninth month since the Maguindanao massacre, PAHRA continues to condemn the act of inhumanity and the barbaric display of power by the Ampatuan clan in November 2009. The group also appeals to President Aquino III to remain steadfast in dismantling private armies and securing the swift resolution of the Ampatuan killings.

Dear Members of the Executive Board:

We understand that, as a result of a June 15 informational meeting held in Paris, the Executive Board will be addressing the UNESCO-Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences at its next session in October. We write to urge you to use that upcoming opportunity to cancel the prize definitively.

We appreciate the action taken on June 15 by UNESCO's leadership, including Director-General Irina Bokova and the members of the Executive Board, to delay the awarding of the UNESCO-Obiang prize and allow for further consultation, in light of concerns and objections raised by scientists, press freedom advocates, scholars, public health professionals, Nobel laureates, UNESCO prize winners, governments, parliamentarians, and global civil society.