In commemoration of the International Human Rights Day (December 10) as declared by the United Nations, CenPEG awarded the human rights alliance Karapatan with a Special Citation of Honor for Outstanding Human Rights Advocacy, Dec. 19, 2007 at the College of Social Work and Community Development grounds, University of the Philippines Diliman Quezon City.

For courage. CenPEG’s Executive Director, Ms. Evi-ta Jimenez, confers the Special Citation of Honor for Outstanding Human Rights Advocacy to KARAPATAN Chairperson Dr. Delen dela Paz (extreme left). Fr. Rex Reyes (second from right), new General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), and CenPEG Board chair, Dr. Bien Lumbera, applaud in approval.

Receiving the award was Karapatan’s chair, Dr. Delen dela Paz. The rights watchdog’s secretary general, Marie Hilao-Enriquez, was represented by Fr. Jonito Cabillas. The special citation was read by CenPEG executive director, Evita Jimenez, together with Dr. Bien Lumbera, CenPEG Board chair, and Fr. Rex Reyes, new general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP).

The special citation was conferred by CenPEG to Karapatan “for its courageous and unfailing advocacy in the cause of human rights in the country” and in “recognition of the urgency to decisively address the worsening of state human rights…a major issue in Philippine governance…”

A number of the organization’s volunteers and coordinators became victims of extra-judicial executions and forced disappearances during the last six years with the perpetrators believed to be members of the state’s security forces. Together with the families of the victims of human rights violations, KARAPATAN is pursuing complaints with the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.