“The trend of vicious attacks against Indigenous Peoples, human rights defenders, and against other sectors of society
has shown how the government has further weaponized the laws, the legal system, and the judicial system to silence
Indigenous Peoples and restrict the work of the civil society,” said Beverly Longid, Global Coordinator of the
International IPMSDL at the opening of the Fight for Our Rights: Online Global Launching of the “Indigenous Peoples Manifesto against Judicial Harassment” and the “Indigenous Peoples Judicial Harassment Monitor.”
The campaign launch held last 5 May aimed to strengthen the capacity of Indigenous Peoples to document cases of judicial
harassment and rights violations and to increase the visibility of the cases of judicial harassment against Indigenous
Peoples.
“We want to highlight why this project we embarked on is of critical importance, and part of this is to continue to
build three key element areas: the capacity of the movement, the education and training, and the media advocacy,” said
Ronny Kareni of the Merdeka West Papua Support Network.
Rei Paulin of KATRIBU (National Alliance of Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines) shared how the series of workshops
organized in the Philippines on weaponizing the law against Indigenous Peoples and activists made the participants
realize how judicial harassment is being used as a tool for perpetuating impunity of government and businesses to avoid
accountability.
Additionally, Jiten Yumnam of the Centre for Research and Advocacy-Manipur shared that one of the positive outcomes of
this initiative is enabling different Indigenous groups from various states in Northeast India to gather and have
several consultations to share the different trends of challenges and common experiences on the threats to the human
rights defenders.
“It is essential to link with the different sectors because we want people to learn about judicial harassment. We must
learn to expose states’ tendency to use laws to harass activists and land rights defenders,” said Paulin.
Launching the manifesto and judicial harassment monitor intends to complement existing human rights monitoring platforms, raise awareness further, and broaden action in
putting pressure to address and end judicial harassment and attacks on Indigenous Peoples rights.
“Hopefully, from this initiative, our dream is to expand the monitor to cover more countries and cases. This can be
possible with the submission and participation of wider and more Indigenous groups, organizations, and advocates,” added
Longid. In 2022, Indigenous Peoples organizations in West Papua, the Philippines, and Northeast India released manifestos to demand their respective governments to stop the attacks, end judicial harassment and to advance
the rights of Indigenous Peoples human rights defenders. A webinar was organized by the International IPMSDL this year to highlight these demands and raise awareness of the cases of
judicial harassment against Indigenous Peoples.