With at least 38 lawyers killed in the Philippines since 2004, lawyers from Asia, Canada, Europe and the United States have signed a petition calling on the Aquino government “to prevent extrajudicial killings and all forms of harassments of lawyers” by prosecuting the perpetrators.
The Lawyers for Lawyers (L4L), an independent non-political foundation supporting lawyers said “many more lawyers have been threatened, harassed, intimidated, labeled as ‘enemies of the state’ or subjected to surveillance or other forms of attacks” for reasons apparently related to their profession.
The group cited that during last year four lawyers were killed in the Philippines.
The petition also calls on the Aquino government to protect the safety of lawyers as provided for in the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1990.
The group said that the causes for extrajudicial killings in the country include “the practice of labeling the victims as ‘enemies of the state’, the involvement of the military in politics, the proliferation of private armies and vigilante groups and the culture of impunity”.
