TOKYO, JAPAN — NUPL is proud to have joined and supported the Confederation of Lawyers of Asia and the Pacific (COLAP) Conference 2024 in Tokyo, Japan. The three-day Conference tackled common issues on peace, human rights, climate change, migrants and refugee issues, and sectoral rights. The Stop the Attacks campaign also hosted an evening session about the situation in the Philippines.
COLAP has 10 member-organizations, including NUPL and the host of the Conference, Japan Lawyers International Solidarity Association (JALISA). Seventeen members of NUPL from NCR, Panay, and Northern Luzon, and the Pro-Labor Legal Assistance Center (PLACE) were part of the delegation. NUPL presented six papers during the conference: among them, Neri Colmenares presented a paper laying out actions and calling for the demilitarization of the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea; Rene Estocapio and Kristina Conti presented papers on abusive and repressive terrorism-related laws and urging collective push back across the region. NUPL Chair Edre Olalia was at the conference as International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) transitional president.
The confederation also held elections for the new executive committee: President Jun Sasamoto (JALISA); Vice Presidents Edwin Dela Cruz (NUPL), Hasan Tarique Chowdhury (Democratic Lawyers Association of Bangladesh), Le Thi Kim Thanh (Vietnam Lawyers Association), and Jaspal Singh Dappar (Indian Lawyers Association); Secretary General Ghanendra Shresta (Progressive and Professional Lawyers Association or PPLA); and Treasurer Maria Kristina Conti (NUPL). Selected as secretaries were Yuka Urushinara (JALISA), Allah Bux Lashari (Democratic Lawyers of Pakistan), Amar Thapa (PPLA), Rea Penol (NUPL), and Agussalim (Progressive Peoples Lawyer Union of Indonesia).
NUPL helped put up the foundations of COLAP. In the first executive committee, Neri Colmenares served as a vice-President, and Edre Olalia as a secretary. Grace Saguinsin is also part of the secretariat.
To see the Tokyo Declaration and learn more about COLAP, see the website https://colapinternational.org/ and Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/COLAP2016/.
