[KWPeace-groups] Invitation to launch event for ICHRP-Canada campaign to free all political prisoners in the Philippines

[CPSO KW]

Hi all,

My name is Ryan Greenlaw. I'm the chair of the newly formed organization
Canada-Philippines Solidarity Organization - Kitchener-Waterloo (CPSO-KW).
We will be officially launching in the next few months, but we'll still be
doing work locally during this time, including supporting national and
international campaigns on a regional level.

CPSO-KW is a member organization of the International Coalition for Human
Rights in the Philippines - Canada (ICHRP-Canada). ICHRP-Canada is a
national alliance and part of a global network of organizations concerned
about the human rights situation in the Philippines. It is committed to
campaigning for just and lasting peace in the country.

We are writing to inform you of the upcoming launch of ICHRP-Canada’s
campaign for the release of Philippine political prisoners. Philippine
prisons are extremely high-risk institutions in the context of the COVID-19
pandemic. Last year, the Bureau of Jail Management reported that at nearly
220,000 inmates, the prison system was at more than 500% capacity. There
are currently over 600 political prisoners languishing in the Philippine
penal system. Political detainees come from a broad range of sectors,
including workers, peasants, church people, students, women, indigenous
people, journalists, peace negotiators, environmental activists, and
others. The variety of political prisoners reflects the broad range of
sectors involved in political struggles against the tyrannical Duterte
regime.

Through the campaign, ICHRP-Canada will work with organizations in Canada
and pair them up with political prisoners from related sectors in the
Philippines. We will support organizations with background information and
profiles of specific detainees to assist in promotion of the campaign among
their membership. There will also be other ways for organizations and
individuals in Canada to support the campaign, such as statement-writing,
education among members about the situation of political prisoners, and
fundraising to help pay for the legal fees of prisoners.

The launch of the campaign will take place via webinar on Wednesday, August
26, at 8:00 pm EST. Our keynote speaker will be Fides Lim, spokesperson of
Kapatid, the organization of families of political prisoners in the
Philippines. Ms. Lim is the wife of Vincent Ladlad, a senior peace
negotiator for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), who
was arrested in November of 2018. We will also hear from members of
Karapatan, a human rights network based in the Philippines; and National
Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates - Youth (NNARA-Youth), an organization
of youth and students advocating the call of peasants for genuine agrarian
reform.

You can register for the event at the following link. After registering,
you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining
the webinar.
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_C1nQI26LSbWklJNXDa49yw

You can also find more information at the Facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/768073983995532/

We hope you will be able to join us for the launch event, and that you will
participate in our campaign to highlight the injustices of the situation of
political detainees. The primary goal of our campaign is to generate
political support for those wrongly accused in the Philippines and to build
momentum for their release while further exposing and isolating the
tyrannical Duterte government. We hope you will join us in promoting and
supporting this just cause.

If nobody from your organization is able to attend the launch event, but
you are interested in learning more about the campaign or getting involved,
feel free to send us an email! We'd be happy to chat about the
campaign, and our work more broadly.

In peace and solidarity,
Ryan Greenlaw
Chair
Canada-Philippines Solidarity Organization - Kitchener-Waterloo