Filipino activist receives Franco-German human rights award

A Filipino activist has been named as one of this year’s recipients of an international human rights award for her work in lobbying for action against enforced disappearances around the world.Mary Aileen Bacalso received the 2019 Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law from the ambassadors of France and Germany in Manila on Dec. 12.

The award noted her role in “providing assistance to victims of enforced disappearances and their families in the Philippines and all over the world.”

Bacalso, former secretary-general of the Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), is the second Filipino to win the prize since Rosemarie Trajano in 2017.

Trajano is secretary-general of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates.

The Franco-German Human Rights and the Rule of Law Prize, created in 2016, is given every year to human rights defenders around the world, including lawyers and journalists.

French ambassador. Nicolas Galey said Bacalso. “raised awareness on the importance of the problem of enforced disappearances, particularly in Asia.”

The region holds the record for the highest number of involuntary disappearance cases.

The ambassador said Bacalso “indefatigably and successfully” lobbied for the enactment of the Philippines’ Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act, the first law of its kind in Asia.

“Of course, much still needs to be done in the whole region as elsewhere in the world,” Galey said.

German ambassador. Anke Reiffenstuel. said the award “underlines that the current situation of human rights is so dire that it requires the work and commitment of organizations like AFAD.”

In her acceptance speech, Bacalso said the award was “more than ever relevant in our own country whose human rights defenders are sadly considered as enemies of the government.”

The Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance in the Philippines has documented 71 disappearance cases in the past three years.

“The figure, which speaks of underreporting and inadequacy of documentation due to an atmosphere of fear, pales in comparison with the actual number of cases,” said Bacalso.

In its 2019 report, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, recorded  45,811 outstanding cases from 108 countries.

Since its inception, the body has received a total of 57,891 cases.

Bacalso commended the French and German governments’ “commitment to the key principles of human rights and their engagement in multiple issues, especially enforced disappearances.”

She said that by establishing the Franco-German Ministerial Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, “both governments give a premium to the struggles of human rights defenders and encourage them to continue their noble work.”

Bacalso’s husband disappeared in November 1988 at the height of an anti-insurgency campaign led by the Philippine government and was allegedly tortured.

This experience inspired Bacalso to work with victims of enforced disappearances.

She led the formation of AFAD, which fosters solidarity in a region that submitted the highest number of cases of enforced disappearances to the United Nations.

In 2013, she received the Patrick Rice Human Rights Award given by the Torture Abolition and Survivors’ Support Coalition and the Emilio F. Mignone International Human Rights Prize awarded by the Argentinian Government.

Aside from Bacalso, 13 other recipients of the award were Ales Bialiatski (Belarus), Li Wenzu (China), El Nadim Center (Egypt), Ameha Mekonnen Asfaw (Ethiopia), Robin Chaurasiya (India), Nasrin Sotoudeh (Iran), Amina Hanga (Nigeria), Miluska Del Carmen Luzquinos Tafur (Peru), Irina Biryukova (Russia), Delphine Kemneloum Djiraibe (Chad), Asena Gunal (Turkey), Luz Mely Reyes (Venezuela), and Vu Quoc Ngu (Vietnam).