MEMBERS
Ateneo Human Rights Center (AHRC), one of the first university-based institutions engaged in the promotion of peace, development and human rights in the Philippines. Established in October 1986, the Center seeks to realize its mandate of protecting and promoting human rights advocates among lawyers, law students and grassroots leaders, the monitoring of the human rights situation in the Philippines and abroad, research and publication, public education on peace, development and human rights, legal assistance to indigent victims of human rights abuses, law school curriculum development and values formation.
Balay Alternative Legal Advocates for Development in Mindanaw, Inc. (BALAOD Mindanaw), a non-stock, non- profit organization that aims to help in the advancement of the legal and justice issues of different marginalized sectors and communities in Mindanao in the context of active peoples’ participation in governance. BALAOD promotes paralegal formation, provides other legal services to marginalized sectors and communities, conducts capability-building interventions on local legislation and dispute resolution, provides a venue for networking and alternative legal assistance for law practitioners, law schools and law students, and facilitates the creation of a favorable policy environment responsive to the needs of marginalized sectors and communities.
Children’s Legal Bureau, Inc. (CLB), a Cebu-based non- stock, non-profit organization envisioning a just world for children. CLB is committed to empower communities in promoting justice for children through legal aid, training, advocacy and networking. Its services include providing legal services to abused children and children in conflict with the law, providing paralegal trainings to communities and children, policy development and advocacy related to child’s rights.
Educational Research and Development Assistance Foundation, Inc. (ERDA), a non-stock, non-profit organization that was organized to assist children who dropped out of school and who are at risk of dropping out, including children in conflict with the law, children who are engaged in child labor, and those who are on the streets. ERDA supports these children through education, family and community support programs. ERDA continues to advocate for inclusive education and juvenile justice.
EnGendeRights, Inc. (EnGendeRights), a non- governmental organization that was founded to advocate for women’s right to sexual and reproductive self-determination free from discrimination, coercion, and violence, including access to contraceptives, emergency contraceptives, and to safe and legal abortion, and equality of lesbians and bisexual women, and their freedom from discrimination. The organization advances women’s rights through domestic and international legal and policy advocacy, research and training, and impact litigation.
Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC), a non- governmental organization that was organized to address the emerging challenge of environment lawyering especially in the rural areas where degradation of the environment is most felt. It aims to protect and assert environmental rights and equitable access to and control of natural resource use by communities in Palawan and the Visayas through effective developmental legal assistance and community-based resource management. ELAC envisions communities that are empowered and self-determining stewards of natural resources.
Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. (HLAF) is a non-government and a non-profit organization specifically focused on the protection of the rights of persons deprived of liberty ,especially those who are most vulnerable, such as children, elderly, women, sick, and differently-abled. HLAF also advocates for the proper implementation of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act. Its main programs are jail decongestion, restorative action and reintegration of ex-detainees.
Kaisahan Tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan (KAISAHAN), a social development organization promoting a sustainable and humane society through the empowerment of marginalized sectors in rural areas, especially among farmers and farm workers, to undertake their own development, participate fully in democratic processes and demand their rightful share in the stewardship of the land and the fruits of their labor. Its mission is to facilitate agrarian reform implementation and sustainable rural development with various stakeholders at the national and local level, especially farmers, farm workers toward the formation of sustainable integrated area development (SIAD) communities.
Kanlungan Center Foundation, Inc. (Kanlungan) is a non-stock, non-profit organization that envisions a truly sovereign and democratic Philippine society where labor migration is just an, and not the only, option and where overseas Filipino women and men enjoy the respect of peoples in other societies within the context of a just and egalitarian global order. It is engaged in direct service, advocacy work, research, and policy interventions for Filipino migrant workers who are survivors of human trafficking, illegal recruitment, workplace abuse, and non-payment of wages, as well as their families and their communities.
Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center –Kasama sa Kalikasan/Friends of the Earth-Philippines, Inc. (LRC- KSK/FOEI-Phils.), a policy and legal research and advocacy institution that was organized as a non-stock, non-profit, non- partisan, cultural, scientific and research foundation duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The organization is also the official Philippine affiliate of Friends of the Earth International. The goal of LRC-KSK is to empower the marginalized and disenfranchised peoples directly dependent on our natural resources so as to be able to effect ecologically sustainable, culturally appropriate, economically viable, gender sensitive, equitable uses, management, conservation and development of our natural resources.
Participatory Research Organization of Communities and Education Towards Struggle for Self-Reliance (PROCESS) Foundation-PANAY, Inc. is a non-government organization operating in Iloilo City, Antique, and other areas in Panay Island. It seeks to empower the grassroots and deprived sectors of society so that they can take control of their own destinies towards a sustainable and ecologically sound environment.
Philippine Earth Justice Center, Inc. (PEJC) is a non- stock and non-profit corporation promoting environmental justice and actively pushing for the full implementation of Philippine environmental laws, accountability of public officials, and capacity building for citizens for the enjoyment of the fundamental right to a balanced and healthful ecology by the current generation and the generations to come. It is an organization established to provide legal assistance to victims of environmental injustice, conduct policy research on the environment, advocate policy reforms, assist in building local capacities for environmental protection and promote sustainability and protection of human rights.
Rainbow Rights Project Philippines, Incorporated (R-Rights) is a non-profit organization that envisions a pluralistic and an inclusive society with progressive views on social participation and political representation, where people of the LGBTQIA+ community (and their intersections, i.e. PLHIV and PWD) are recognized as productive members of society and important contributors to nation-building. R-Rights conducts policy advocacy and research; training, education, and capacity-building; publications, resources, and documentation; lobbying, law reform; and campaigns, networking, and media relations.
Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panlegal (SALIGAN) is a legal resource non-government organization engaged in developmental legal work with women, workers and local communities. Founded in 1987, SALIGAN operates in different areas throughout the Philippines, through its main office in Quezon City and its branches in Naga City in the Bicol region and Davao City in Mindanao. SALIGAN's programs include litigation, legal education, policy reform work, research and publication of popular legal materials, and internship.
Tanggapang Panligal ng Katutubong Pilipino (PANLIPI), an organization of lawyers and indigenous people’s (IP) advocates that pioneered and continues to engage in development work among indigenous peoples in the Philippines. It was established in 1985 and had since implemented programs for the development of IP communities through: Developmental Legal Assistance, Legal Education and Outreach, Institutional Capability Building, Ancestral Domains Delineation, and Resource Management Planning.
Tanggol Kalikasan, Inc. (TK), a public interest environmental law office which envisions an empowered society that relates with its environment in a just and sustainable manner for the equitable benefit of all Filipinos. Tanggol Kalikasan’s mission is to facilitate the empowerment of communities and institutions to manage their ecosystems through law and other creative mechanisms. Conscious of the power of an organized and informed citizenry, TK’s programs are aimed at encouraging greater citizen’s participation in environmental law enforcement and policy-making in resource allocation.
Tebtebba Foundation (Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education) is an indigenous peoples’ organization born out of the need for heightened advocacy to have the rights of indigenous peoples respected, protected and fulfilled worldwide. It also advocates and works on the elaboration and operationalization of indigenous peoples’ sustainable, self-determined development. Its program areas include enhancing capacities for climate change adaptation and mitigation; effective national implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity; Promotion and implementation of the International Human Rights Law and UNDRIP at the national, regional and global levels; Philippine national program for Indigenous People’s empowerment and sustainable development; and Indigenous People’s Sustainable and Self-Determined Development (IPSSDD).
Women’s Legal and Human Rights Bureau (WLB), a non-government legal organization promoting and fighting for women’s human rights in accordance with feminist and development perspectives and principles. Specifically, its mission is to provide feminist legal services and actively engage in advocacy together with other women’s groups to transform the law and the legal system in furtherance of the right of women to self-determination and the advancement of their dignity, rights and leadership. For most of its 12 years of operations, WLB has been at the forefront of pioneering initiatives to promote and protect women’s human rights in the country.
