chrp agm activities 2015

8/19/2019 CHRP AGM Activities 2015

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Annual General Meeting 2015 – Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines

CAMPAIGN FORHUMAN 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 CHRP’s activities mainly spotlighted the activities of British

multinational mining companies committing abuses against indigenous

peoples in the Philippines.



Page 1

Campaign for Human Rights in the

PhilippinesR E P O R T O N A C T I V I T I E S 2 0 1 5

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 “Glencore’s 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-Xstrataalso has operations, and via video link Enteng Bautista of Kalikasan People’s Network for the

Environment. The film is now available for viewing on Youtube. (Search Glencore’s Deadly

Mine.)




Page 2

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 People’s Conference on Mining 2015 (IPCM) in Quezon

City, Philippines with the theme “Highlighting people’s 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.



Page 3

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.




Page 4

Public meetings were held in UNISON Centre and at St John’s 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 migrantworkers 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.

chrp agm activities 2015

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