 Welcome, everyone, and thank you very much for joining us today in this event. My name is Daniel Jolloy. I am a senior policy advisor at Amnesty International. And it's a real honor to be here today for a conversation with you all. Together with IDPC and CELS, we put together this event to analyze the increasing risks and challenges that civil society organizations and human rights defenders are facing in the respective countries because of the so-called war on drugs. We have seen how in recent years, civil society organizations and human rights defenders are facing increasing risks and challenges for speaking out against injustice and standing up for human rights around the world. Human rights defenders across the globe are facing a non-slot of harassment, intimidation, ill treatment, restrictions, unjust prosecutions, and detention, simply for speaking up for human rights. Thousands of human rights defenders have been killed or forcibly disappeared by state and non-state actors. And far from being recognized and protected by the state, they are often portrayed as criminals, undesirables, foreign agents, anti-nationals, or even terrorists. The so-called war on drugs has been a particular driver of threats and attacks against human rights defenders. The increasing powerful non-state actors and armed groups and the rising levels of violence have created an increasingly complex context for human rights defenders at a time when states are imposing more restrictions on civil society. Organized crime, as you all know, poses a risk to human rights defenders as criminal groups often use violent methods to establish control over their territory and will retaliate against anyone who gets on their way. Likewise, states attempt to clamping down on such criminal networks, particularly when these strategies are militarized, or when officials act in collusion with criminal groups, can also create a dangerous environment in which human rights defenders risk being targeted, both by state and non-state actors. From journalists who have exposed the collusion between authorities and organized crime, to human rights defenders exposing abuses committed by the security forces during counter-narcotic operations, to drug policy reform activists, doctors, and healthcare providers, all of them, all these human rights defenders have been facing challenges because of current drug policies. Today, we will hear from three amazing human rights defenders who have found themselves at the frontline of such attacks in different regions of the world. Each of them will tell us about the work they and their organizations have been doing to promote and defend human rights in the midst of the war and drugs, and about the threats and attacks they have faced because of this work. Let me just say as well that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights Defenders, and this presents an important opportunity for us all to reflect on these issues. We hope that throughout this discussion, we will be able to explore how current drug control poses specific risks to human rights defenders, but also to explore the opportunities for increasing their protection at the national regional and international level, including through specific action taken by UN agencies based here in Vienna. Today, we will hear first from Maricela Orozco from Mexico. Maricela has been defending human rights since Mexico's bloody security strategy brought tragedy to her life. In 2014, two of his young kids were killed. One of them remained disappeared for more than three years. While searching for his son in a context where more than 30,000 people remained disappeared in Mexico, she got together with other families who are also searching for their whereabouts of their loved ones. Together, they founded the organization Families of the Search Maria Herrera, and later they established the national network of families of people forcibly disappeared. Her work in the search for the disappeared and against the militarization of public security in Mexico has put her at grave risk, forcing her to leave the city where she lived with her family. Later, we will hear from Elisar Carlos or Budit, who's a human rights defender from the Philippines, who has been at the forefront of the response against the violent anti-drug strategy that began since president Duterte took power in 2016 and declared a war on drugs in which police and vigilantes have killed thousands of alleged drug offenders in what in what may constitute crimes against humanity. Buritis also is the spokesperson of the organization in Defense of Human Rights and Dignity Movement, or IDFENT, and the Deputy Secretary-General of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates. And to finalize, we will hear from Peter Sarrosi, a human rights activist and drug policy expert from Hungary. He is the executive director of the Rights Reporter Foundation and previously worked with the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union. His organization is among the many NGOs affected by recent Hungarian laws targeting civil society that restrict the right of organizations to seek and utilize resources from foreign sources, a law that is highly stigmatizing against NGOs and human rights defenders, and that is making even more difficult for these organizations to support the marginalized communities which they work for, including people who use drugs. So without further talk, I will stop myself and I will give the microphone on the floor to Maricela. Maricela will speak in Spanish and I will be doing translation as she moves on. Buenos dias. Mi nombre es Maricela Orozco. Estoy aquí porque desgraciadamente sufrí el secuestro de mi hijo Herzog, estudiante de arquitectura de 19 años, y el asesinato de mi hijo Alam, de tan solo 15 años, estudiante de Prepa y joven profesional del fútbol, y el asesinato de Milherno Miguel. Good morning. My name is Maricela Orozco. I come from Mexico. I am here today because, unfortunately, my kid Gerson, of 19 years old, was kidnapped a little bit more than three years ago. And that same day, my son Alan, who was an architecture student, and my son-in-law Miguel, were also killed when they were looking for Gerson. Mi hijo Gerson fue desaparecido en el marco de la violencia e impunidad que genera la guerra contra las drogas en México. Esta guerra ha consistido en la militarización de la seguridad pública, resultado de un aumento de violencia a los derechos humanos y alcanzando una cifra oficial de más de 30,000 personas desaparecidas desde el 2006. My son Gerson was disappeared in the context of the violence and impunity that the war on drugs has brought to Mexico. This war has consistent in the militarization of public security, resulting in the increase of violence and human rights violations that has reached a number of more than 30,000 people disappeared since 2006. En el caso de la desaparición de Gerson y el asesinato de Alan and Miguel, están involucrados agentes estatales y no estatales, e incluso de la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional. Han participado en el encubrimiento de evidencias sensible del caso y actualmente la corrupción de los jueces para encubrir la delincuencia organizada. In the case of the disappearance of Gerson and the killing of Alan and Miguel are involved state and non-state actors. Even the Secretary of Defense has participated in covering up for the evidence of this tragic case. And judges have currently also covering for organized crime. A raíz de ahí empieza mi lucha por tratar de encontrar a mi hijo. En la búsqueda de Gerson conocía a otros familiares y me unía a ellos para formar nuestra organización familiares en la búsqueda María Herrera y una red de colectivos de familiares de personas desaparecidas de todo el país llamada la red enlaces nacionales. Así pasé de buscar solamente a mi hijo a buscar a todas las personas desaparecidas en México. De esta manera me convertí en Defensora de Derechos Humanos. Because of this, I began my struggle to try to find my son. By looking for Gerson, I met other families and we gathered together to find our organization, families in the search María Herrera and a network of other family collectives of people looking for their disappeared across all the country called the Network of National Groups. That's how I became from searching only for my son to look for many other people disappeared in Mexico. This is how I became a woman human rights defender. Desde familiares en búsqueda María Herrera y la red enlaces nacionales he participado en acciones de búsqueda en vida y búsqueda en fosas clandestinas. En el proceso de diseño de la ley de desaparición recientemente aprobada y en el proceso de resistencia a la ley de seguridad interior que tristemente fue aprobada hace poco. También he participado activamente en esfuerzos organizativos para exigir un alto al estrategia de guerra contra las drogas. From these two organizations, I have joined actions to look for the disappeared alive and also in mass graves. I also participated in the process to draft the general law against disappearances, which was recently approved in Congress. And we also resisted a recent law on interior security, a law that was sadly approved just a few months ago. I have also joined active efforts to demand a stop of this war against drugs. Además de los daños de la guerra contra las, que la guerra contra las drogas ha significado para miles de familias que como la mía han perdido o están en búsqueda de sus seres queridos, defender los derechos humanos en este contexto es muy riesgoso. En nuestra labor de búsqueda han matado a varios compañeros como Miriam, Rodríguez, que buscaba a su hija Karen y fue asesinada en mayo del año pasado en su casa. Y el compañero José Jesús, quien buscaba a su hija Jenny y fue asesinada en junio del 2016. He ha visto a los dos重要 que pudo anteriormente de poner before the tension and pervertir las lasencias sobre las víctimas de la guerra contra las drogas por la guerra, y han tenido que volverlo. Llegados de los y los colombianos que han pago con los de la guerra contra las víctimas y han sido块ados por ellos, y que la guerra contra las drogas ha aumentado por milcome. Y se ha visto a los dos, and was killed in May of last year at her house or our friend Jose Jesus Jimenez Gaona who was looking for her daughter Jenny Isabel and was killed in June 2016. La búsqueda nos vuelve incómodos para actores criminales privados pero también para el estado porque evidenciamos sus omisiones y su colucción con el crimen organizado. Al organizarnos y se apropiarnos de los casos de todos y todas como si fueran nuestros desaparecidos aumenta nuestra vulnerabilidad. The search for our loved ones makes us be uncomfortable both for criminal actors but also for the state because we evidence their omissions and their collusion with organized crime by organizing ourselves and taking upon all the other cases as if there are our own cases our vulnerability increases. Por otra parte en México la nula reparación del daño para nosotros los familiares de las víctimas es nula como defensores de derechos humanos. On the other hand in Mexico it's almost zero the reparation of damages or or effective remedies for victims of human rights violations and human rights defenders. Yo pertenezco al mecanismo de protección para defensores de derechos humanos y periodistas con una valoración de riesgo extraordinario para lo cual el mecanismo me ha destinado algunas medidas de protección como el botón de pánico instalación de chapas de seguridad barrotes sensores de movimiento reflectores sin embargo la situación de riesgo que enfrenta mi familia es muy alto por la que la Procuraduría General de la República sufle una suple una parte importante de las funciones del mecanismo y nos otorga escoltas como una medida adicional de seguridad dado que las que propone el mecanismo son insuficientes. I am part of the mechanism of protection for human rights defenders and journalists that has evaluated my risk as extraordinary the mechanism has granted me some protection measures such as a panic alert installation of strong doors and windows a GPS sensor and lights across my house however the risk situation me and my family are facing is very very high and that's why the attorney general office has been forced to intervene as well and to give me some police to protect me and my family because the measures proposed by the mechanism are insufficient el botón de pánico es una medida privatizada que cuando lo activas te ponen contacto con una empresa además es insuficiente porque no tiene la capacidad de reacción adecuada ante una emergencia y con frecuencia el aparato no funciona en casos de emergencia te mandan rondines de patrulla lo cual no te protege en caso de un intento de homicidio o ataque directo the panic alert is a privatized measure that when you activate it it puts you in touch with a private corporation besides it is inefficient because it doesn't have the capacity to react adequately and before an emergency and frequently the the bottom doesn't work in emergency cases the police would only send some people to police around your house but they won't be able to protect you when they are trying to kill you or to attack you directly sumado esto llegar a formar parte del mecanismo es muy complicado y necesitas el acompañamiento de una organización de la sociedad civil especializada en lidiar con el mecanismo para que tu caso ser incorporado y mantenido dentro del mecanismo y para exigir constantemente la adecuación de las medidas de protección en adición being able to be considered by the mechanism is very complex and you necessarily need the follow-up of a civil society organization that is specialized in dealing with the mechanism just in order for the authorities to take your case into consideration and be kept within the mechanism and to have to demand constantly that the specific measures granted are evaluated and changing according to the necessities el mecanismo siempre va a ser insuficiente mientras los casos de personas defensoras agredidas sigan aumentando el mecanismo no implementa medidas preventivas ni medidas integrales para reducir los índices de impunidad en estos ataques sin embargo se mantendrá un ciclo activo de agresión a defensores de derechos humanos y periodistas the mechanism will always be insufficient while the cases of human rights defenders attack are increasing the mechanism does not implement measures to prevent these attacks nor comprehensive measures to reduce the rates of impunity for these attacks without this the cycle of attacks and threats against human rights defenders and journalists will definitely continue el ciclo de impunidad y corrupción que alimenta la guerra contra las drogas no ha permitido que encontremos a todas y todos nuestros desaparecidos y pone en riesgo a quienes defendemos los derechos humanos por esto es urgente cambiar la estrategia de políticas de drogas a una que garantice la protección de los derechos humanos the cycle of impunity and corruption that fuels the war against drugs has not allowed us to find for our disappearing and and increases the risks for those who defend for for those of us who defend human rights this is why it is urgent to need the strategy and drug control policies in Mexico towards one that guarantees the full protection of human rights thank you very much and i just want to share that this last December we found the body of our son who was kidnapped for more than three years so i'm going to give the floor now to to elas or carlos from the philippines thank you so much daniel warm greetings of human rights solidarity to all i would like to take this opportunity to thank amnesty international and the the national drug policy consortium for organizing this important event that further enables us to bring out the truth on what is happening in the philippines i'm with the philippine alliance of human rights advocates and paris the lead convener of the indefense of human rights and dignity movement the one that first responded to the mass killings when they started even before president duterte took office in june 2016 and we're now engaged in our second international solidarity and information tour we went all around the world last year for five months simply because we could not see working accountability mechanisms in the philippines and our judicial system being already under the control of this of our violent president and yeah essentially we're also extending the philippine human rights movement which was one strong outside the philippines because of the impending dictatorship in our country most of you are all aware of the drug war in the philippines operating outside the rule of law which has made human life very cheap the worst human rights crisis since the time of marcos one that is humanizing us all as we reported constantly at the un and the us congress president rodrigo duterte established a permission structure for mass murder and redefined the rules and institutionalized the rules of an institutionalized impunity in the philippines he has popularized the idea that the crisis there can be solved by exterminating addicts and criminals conditioned our police to be quick on the trigger and routinely circumvent true process and they have a general content for the rule of law by promising them protection from litigation imposing on them forced quotas forced results offering bounties to even ordinary citizens and putting up a reward system hitler style he effectively dehumanized and defined drug dependence and drug peddlers as the the inconvenient sector worthy of elimination through sustained incitement to hate and violence he has done so no this kill society's undesired or de facto social cleansing policy has led to the deaths of at least 12,000 conservatively speaking of the most neglected beaten down in the poverty sections of philippine society including children what civil society has offered no are three basic things one this includes academic institutions international experts and of course human rights groups is to end that clamped down prohibitionist and hard-lined approach which never worked elsewhere and apply compassionate evidence-based human rights and public health centered approach to resolving the drug issue of course radical reforms in our inoperable anti-poor criminal justice system so that justice can flow there and mostly is an investment in a life of dignity for all addressed the root cause in the philippines there is a huge market of beaten down impoverished individuals predisposed to become exploited into a life of crime and drugs and we would like essential services and opportunities to be democratized so that everyone can have a chance to get out of poverty explaining to this administration the direct relationship between the decrease of crime and drug dependency with the rise of a standard of living instead of consulting and listening to us the third that demonized us human rights defenders and conditioned the public to detest us he has publicly distorted and sown misperceptions about human rights values ideals and principles he has presented human rights groups as cutlers of criminals and obstructionists of justice and obstacles to development and promoted sorry about that the narrative that the world will never be safe for as long as these human rights groups are here to side with criminals addicts and so forth um this state enforced um distortion of the truth um and um hate uh for human rights and human rights defenders has eroded public belief in human rights and secured some level of public acceptance should the killings um spill over our sector um yes publicly threatened to kill us on several locations ordered the police to shoot us if we obstruct justice and harvest us together with addicts using the word harvest um the the terrorist message is clear all he has to do is um give the orders and we will all uh be killed this situation has drastically constricted space for human rights discourse and the defense of human rights in the philippines um yeah so there's no affirmative action being undertaken to resolve the killings both by the police and two-thirds of the killings of um death squads no um the design design of the drug war is um um is really confined confining the violence and mass killings to the most impoverished urban poor communities um the lowest ranks of the drug trade really and the impact of the drug war uh is several fold no this invaders everyone anyone can now be accused of being an addict or a drug pusher in the philippines um without having the opportunity to go to court and defend him or herself um that general contempt for the rule of law um is leading to the breakdown of our democratic institutions um it threatens to transfigure the mindsets of our entire policing establishment transforming even the most law-abiding and decent police officer into butchers um now we threaten also to throw away all the human rights education work that um the commissioning human rights and human rights organizations have been doing and of course the damage to civic behavior in the philippines the normalization of the killings uh is worsening our collective sociopathy um the after several extensions has finally ruled the drug war that the drug war will continue until 2022 um and yeah now is the problem is that the dormant death squad network has been unleashed uh into an entire epidemic so what is important now is exposing his true intentions um he has no intentions whatsoever to resolve the drug issue um the philippines war on drugs is really nothing more than a sham war used as a populist uh tool to sow a culture of fear and silence and to advance an authoritarian agenda it's clear to us all um that this is just um a part of a much bigger picture for us it's about the falling apart of democracy and a retrogression into dictatorship and the disintegration of philippine society situation today is the closest we have been to a uh an authoritarian government in 30 years and he's been rolling back the gains of human rights and democracy and civil and political rights having had been sub um systematically eroded uh he has called up two other branches of government and um we have evaluated that his current priorities is two political projects chacha charter change and federalism is merely a realignment of the elite and uh intends to dissolve nationalist economic and human rights provision in our constitution and do away with the democratic safeguards and checks and balances on term extension and also the judicial congressional review of martial law declaration and intends to abolish constitutional commissions such as the commission in human rights um he also has a well financed propaganda machinery that is uh effective in um shaping public opinion social conditioning and echoing his anti-human rights and kill rhetoric and of course online bullying and spreading a culture of intolerance to criticism and dissent um he has made full use of bureaucratic and political apparatuses to carry out political persecution and silence dissent and criticism and attacked through judicial harassment and misogynistic public comments those who represent our institutions providing checks and balances um yeah and these political critics our vice president senator delima the supreme court chief um now facing um uh removal uh and and of course our ombudsperson's chief has been whitewashing the marcos years and painting the marcos years as a as the golden years um as institutionalized vigilantism and forced organizing um by yeah forming pseudo mass movements these are extremist nationalist groups exploiting a distorted sense of patriotism um this has constricted space for public action for us because this government funded public actions rallies really hitler style they organize in the very same spaces that we we do no um yes okay um yeah so the challenge for us is enormous and unprecedented in the philippines for human rights defenders while being threatened as next targets we must persevere to fight apathy help philippine society re-establish the respect for right to life and reclaim our collective humanity um and yeah basically um the difference between now and the marcos dictatorship is during the marcos dictatorship um the public was um yeah sympathetic with the human rights cause but now um a huge section of the philippine public detests us um the threat is still able to operate on top of a strong support base and yeah we lack physical and security plans amongst human rights organizations while government is actually upgrading its surveillance capacity and infrastructure um and where a lot of us are under the watch and persons of interest lists of the philippine national police and the armed forces of the philippines so uh the total crackdown um uh of uh political activists started actually and has seen this the rise of killings of activists and the human rights defenders already and this includes the murder of eight indigenous environmental rights defenders on the december 3 um last year so our work now is how to expose the duplicity of the that the claims to be anti-poor but really has no social agenda that will uplift the lives of the poor whose economic policies will only deepen inequality so yeah that basically our role is now to make sure that our fellow philippines will not behave like the good germans of the nazi era and of course accountability and how to protect provide sanctuaries for the family courageous families of victims of ex-judicial killings so yes thank you very much so now we'll give the floor to peter from hungary yeah thank you very much so my organization the rights supporter foundation is based in budapest hangary uh we produce videos in human rights advocacy because we believe that videos are very powerful tools uh to document human rights abuses and make the drug control system more transparent and accountable and uh to give voice to those communities who have no voice at the mainstream media and apart from producing videos ourselves now we created a global network for filmmakers who are producing movies on on drug policies and you can find our online video database on drug reporter our website we also have a russian speaking russian language video blog the du news blog and you know i i've been working in this field since 2003 and 15 years ago when i started to work i was quite optimistic i told that uh in my region in eastern europe gradually and slowly but we will be able to close the gap gap between western europe and eastern europe in terms of like human rights and drug policies but unfortunately i have i'm disappointed now because uh it doesn't seem to be closing this gap but actually that is a widening gap also in in human rights and also in drug policies in most of our countries we have still very restrictive drug laws and these drug laws are disproportionately affecting those people who live on the margins of society for example roma communities in our countries this is an often overlooked problem and racial segregation and racial discrimination in relation to the drug war is not only the reality in the us but also it's a reality in in in some european countries with migrants and with roma people and there are some areas where 90 percent of injecting drug users belong to roma communities and there is racial profiling in the police and a lot of abuse and what we also see in our region increasingly is abuse in the name of treatment so there are so-called rehabilitation centers who are which are kidnapping people and beating them and torturing them and humiliating them in the name of drug treatment so there is a very strong sentiment still in our society that people people who use drugs should be humiliated in order to you know integrate back them to the society and i recommend you to watch a movie which was recently produced by my russian and ukrainian colleagues forced to be healthy it's available on drug reporter website and that is documenting stories of those people who were kidnapped and tortured in these in these centers and i think that's something the international community should do that we should strongly we actually should have a strong voice that these centers should be closed and at the same time there is no increasing access to evidence-based services in my region what we see is that actually international donors are treating retreating from the region and 90 percent of harm reduction services for example are funded were funded by international donors so we could document in many countries the collapse of harm reduction systems in previous years and closing down of life-saving programs in my own country hangary the two largest needle and syringe programs were closed down a few years ago which were providing 50 percent of of clean needles in the country and it resulted in a in a huge outbreak of hepatitis c epidemic in my country and and it happened in in other countries of the region so that's that's something which we should we should address and in in in Russia methadone treatment is still still illegal and then Russia invaded Crimea then hundreds of people died because their treatment was interrupted and now some of our Russian colleagues are suing the Russian government at the Strasbourg Human Rights Court challenging the the illegality of of methadone so we have very brave and strong activists from from the region who are standing up and try to protect their rights unfortunately there is a strong backlash from the government for example one of our partners the andrei rilkov foundation which is a harm reduction NGO providing needles for drug users in Moscow their website was banned by the government just because they were promoting methadone substitution treatment and now we have to host their website from Hungary because they are not able to do it from Russia and and on on on top of the drug war now what we see is a is a crackdown on on civil society organizations so first Russia introduced foreign agent law probably most of you heard about that so that requires NGOs that receive foreign funding and that are condemned of as you know as as political policy advocate advocacy organizations to register as foreign agents so this is like stigmatizing these NGOs and scapegoating these NGOs and making them responsible for all bad all bad things in in society and unfortunately now more and more countries are importing this Russian style foreign agent laws including my own country Hungary which also introduced a version of this foreign agent law and it applies to us as well so all NGOs who receive foreign funding have to register and and and and that's kind of you know stigmatizing the the NGOs but together with other NGOs now we're challenging this law we submitted a complaint to the substitute to the constitutional court of Hungary and we also challenged the law at the Strasbourg Human Rights Court and the European Commission also initiated an investigation against Hungary but it seems that our government does not learn from this mistake because now they are actually introduced the second bill they call it stop shorosh stops shorosh law which is actually directly against George Shorosh and the NGOs who are funded by George Shorosh saying that actually George Shorosh is kind of like conspiring against Hungary and and try to undermine Hungary and Hungary's international role and the government also launched a huge billboard poster campaign so you can see these posters all over Hungary in even even the smallest villages are full with these posters with the picture of George Shorosh being depicted as you know the the devil actually you know and in in this environment NGOs who try to do some advocacy work it's it's really bad it's really hostile environment and that's that also affects drug policy like those those NGOs who try to provide just services are also affected by this chilling effect of this of this very negative campaign so when when you know Waslav Havel the the famous Czech dissident after the fall of communism said that that a totalitarian system can coexist with a capitalist market and it can also coexist with parliamentary elections but it cannot coexist with a vibrant and free civil society so I think that that's really key not only to make good drug policies but also also just to maintain democracy to keep civil society free and what is the message to to to those countries who are more advanced in democracy and international donors is please don't let down the human rights defenders in our region please don't retreat from the region and please keep funding service providers and also advocacy NGOs because what what is the what is sometimes the most difficult in the situation is that we are scapegoated because we use international funds but there are less and less international support so as as Martin Luther King said in the end you will remember not remember the diverse of your enemies but the silence of your friends so you should I think the international community community has a lot to do in in this regard thank you very much great thank you very much to the three panelists we still have around 10 minutes so we will open the floor for for some questions or comments please be very concise so we can bring the most comments and questions on board so whoever has a question hi um Christine Metta with Physicians for Human Rights I have a question for Mr. Elisir actually I wondered if you could expand a little bit on some of the methods that the Filipino government is using to target activists I know for example that they've already gone after the Commission on Human Rights by slashing their budget to about 20 USD so I'm wondering if you know for activists out in civil society space whether there are also similar tactics being used like going after foreign sources of funding for local activists as well as criminal charges and if not currently do you see the risk increasing for those kinds of tactics to be used thank you Daniel thank you amnesty for organized this seven and IDPC is an opinion about the the colombia situation please you know according with the national ombudsman during the last two years were murdered almost 300 people human rights defender in my country and one woman is killed is two months there in 2016 in colombia was signed a peace agreement that included a point about drugs this accord is focusing in the rural communities involved in the cultivation of the cross in their in their rigs and the improve of their lives despite the peace agreement during the last year almost 14 campesinos were murdered in the framework of the forced eradication organized by the by the national government against poor communities like massive murder occurred in last october 5 only in the first two months of the 2018 were more than 10 people involved in the crop substitution process according with the monitoring of the observatory of the global that I like I work between 2017 and 2018 the data goes up to 134 implicates in this where the army the army forces paramilitary groups and guerillas too we claim that the responsibility for the protect families committed with the peace process and the crop substitution is the state thank you Daniel well thank you so much for that good question well essentially the budget of the chr was yeah was intended to slash it but congress did return it it was really a demonstration of power on the terrorist part he's been harassing the commission on human rights ever since and through charter change he intends to dissolve this institution together with other institutions that provide checks and balances and so we're we're really very very on our toes with respect to this issue charter change and federalism I can't mention the organization but there's this organization that actually is now tagged to be supporting the left and they had a big conference and the budget of this was actually stopped by government no and actually the donor the country of the donor institution was actually spoken to by by government their embassy in china and they said don't you know that that one of your institutions in your country is actually supporting a terrorist organization and so yeah about three days ago four days ago the department of justice released 600 individuals that they claimed to be connected to the left and declared them as terrorists that includes the special rapporteur on eyepiece indigenous peoples and yeah judicial harassment is has become quite common in the context of the crackdown and of course upland kapaia pan the counter insurgency program of that um of course the incitement to hate and violence against human rights defenders and um yeah essentially there's a new law that came out while we were sleeping that was um um yeah inconspicuously done no uh traitor style um r a 10 uh 973 where the philippine national police chief can actually summon anyone in philippine society without judicial approval and yeah it's um more or less pending marshal law it's more or less becoming a police state anyway last question if someone isabel okay so i'm gonna do my question in spanish because it's for marisela and then daniel will translate marisela uh quería preguntar si nos puderas contar más de las comisiones de búsqueda que hacen los familiares y los riesgos que tienen los familiares para ser estas comisiones de manera independiente o las garantías que pueden tener para hacer esas búsquedas commission for searching for the disappeared and what guarantees they have um for for being able to do that work uh nosotros empezamos con las búsquedas en fosas clandestinas la gente por anónimos nos decían dónde creían que habían cuerpos y empezamos a buscar una desobediencia hacia el gobierno porque le pedíamos que fueran a buscar y ellos no querían así que los otros familiares nos organizamos y fui empezamos a buscar en fosas y si hemos encontrado muchísimos cuerpos y de hecho el cuerpo de mi hijo que apenas apareció en esa fosa que es la más grande creo que del mundo que ha aparecido o por lo menos de mi país se encontraron se han encontrado 284 cuerpos y cómo lo hacemos empezamos con una varilla estar enterrando en la tierra y las acabamos y lo liamos y cuando huele horrible es que hay cuerpos y pues como les digo ahí encontré ahí se encontró el de mi hijo y aún así el juez niega que haya delincuencia organizada en veracruz so we began first looking at mass graves uh following tips from anonymous people who told us they they felt there were bodies um in there uh so as a form of civil disobedience um to the reluctant government for for going and searching at those sites the families organized themselves and we found several several bodies that were that were um in in in those um terrains um actually the the body of my son was in one of those mass graves um it's actually one of the biggest mass graves that we know if not globally at least in my country we found 284 bodies um that were um in in that mass grave and despite this the judge in veracruz that the city where maricela is from is still denying that there's organized crime in the state so well um sadly we are running out of time um i want to thank you all for for joining us the amazing panelists for for sharing your studies with us today and and for the amazing work that you're doing on the ground uh just to close that um to say that it's clear that from three very different regions in the world we are seeing the same patterns the same trends of threats and attacks against human rights defenders of how governments are directly stigmatizing human rights defenders not only people who use drugs who have for many many years been stigmatized and scapegoated but now also those people who are working to defend those rights are being stigmatized and scapegoated we are seeing these huge attack around the world with undue restrictions to the rights to freedom of expression freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of associations in countries that were usually the champions of human rights we are also seeing these attacks so we're seeing this huge challenge uh we are seeing direct threats and attacks against human rights defenders who have found themselves at these attacks so we urge both vienna-based bodies delegations here and the international community in general to keep this discussion ongoing we are certain that that the the process towards 2019 and beyond offers this opportunity to raise these amazing stories to to increase the visibility of these human rights defenders that are at risk and to push states to actually commit to their obligations to protect the work of these human rights defenders so thank you very much to all for for joining us and thanks to to the amazing human rights defenders