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Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is United Nations Special Rapporteur on rights of indigenous peoples. The cousins belongs to people of Kankana-ey-Igorot and has been committed to rights of women and indigenous peoples worldwide for years. She is founder and director of Tebtebba Foundation, an international centre of indigenous Communities for political research and education. At beginning of March it was announced that Philippine government, under President Rodrigo Duterte, would like to be declared a terrorist in court. The interview took place on phone.
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Online Time: Mrs Tauli-Corpuz, her name is on a list filed by Philippine government in front of a court in Manila to let m and ors be declared terrorists. Are you worried about your safety?
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz: Of course. The list resembles so-called drug lists that government has imagined. These are lists of names of alleged dealers or persons who have orwise violated Antidrogengesetze. Such lists have made people target of being considered by government as enemies of state. The lists are like battle orders: people whose names were on drug lists were later among victims of extrajudicial killings.
Anyone who is now on list of alleged terrorists could also be killed or arrested. Supporters of president could also pick me up and try to arrest me under false accusations or kill me. This is a real danger.
Online Time: What do you do to protect yourself?
Tauli-Corpuz: I was told to leave country. Fortunately, I had to work professionally in Geneva to United Nations, where I participated in a workshop: that indigenous peoples defending ir rights are so often criminalized and attacked – and what we can do to prevent and Protect. So here I am at moment.
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Online Time: Is your work hampered by terrorist list?
Tauli-Corpuz: Currently not, at least not directly. My mandate is to observe human rights violations of indigenous peoples all over world and to identify resources against m. As a UN special Rapporteur, I enjoy immunity from legal accusations, accusations and arrests. This is laid down in Convention on United Nations Privileges and Immunities of 1946, and Philippines ratified this agreement in following year. In ory, this list should not affect my work at all. Unfortunately, we are not living in a world in which governments always abide by rules of international and national treaties that y ratify.
Online Time: On list were also priests and or human rights activists who do not travel so much. What about you?
Tauli-Corpuz: For those who are in country, risk is greater. Some advise with lawyers what y need to do to protect mselves from arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings. You have to devote a part of your time to this, and that distracts you from your actual work as a human rights defender. It would refore be important for whole world to join campaign, which calls on government to get rid of this list.
Online Time: The Philippine Ministry of Justice has declared that its name has landed on list because it is a member of Communist Party of Philippines (CPP) and its armed arms, new People’s Army (NPA).
Tauli-Corpuz: I reject se false accusations. I am neir a member of CPP nor NPA and I never was. I am in no way connected with m. And I was never involved in incidents mentioned in Government’s request and 340-page appendix.
Online Time: Then how did you get to this list?
Tauli-Corpuz: It is a retaliation for a statement that I made toger with Cecilia Jímenez-Damary Last December, UN Special Rapporteur on rights of internal refugees. At time, we dealt with situation of indigenous Lumad in Mindanao and expressed our concern about massive and potentially irreversible human rights violations re.
Online Time: What human rights violations?
