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6 Neth. Q. Hum. Rts. 7 (1988)
Tribute to Jose (Pepe) W. Diokno

handle is hein.journals/nethqur21 and id is 11 raw text is: TRIBUTE TO JOSE (PEPE) W. DIOKNO Hans Thoolen* In February 1986 the Marcos regime fell under popular pressure. One year later, at the age of 65, Senator Jose W. Diokno, one of world's best known human rights activists, died of cancer. He started out as a lawyer and opposition politician with a strong commitment fo fulfilling the basic rights of the Filipino people, was arrested in 1972 under martial law and detained for two years. He was the founder and guiding light of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) of the Civil Liberties Union of the Philippines and author of a much-imitated series of human rights primers - short guides detting out in plain language every-one's civil and political rights for at a large audience. His eminence at the national level soon brought increasing responsibilities at the international level, where his knowledge and candour made him a much-demanded and often-quoted leader of the non-governmental human-rights movement, which was emerging as a global and inter-active network. He was, inter alia, a founding member of the Regional Council for Human Rights in Asia and, in 1982, he chaired the first HURIDOCS Assembly in Strasbourg, which he steered to a successful end. At the constituent assembly of SOS-Torture in 1983 in Geneva, I had the honour to serve him as secretary for Commission II and witnessed how he was able to conceptualize this new idea and put it across to the plenary in convincing terms based on his wide, practical experience in defence of torture victims. After Marcos' fall although he could not identify himself fully with the new government's programme - he had accepted to become head of the Presidential Committee on Human Rights, set up to investigate human rights violations and promote human rights awareness and education, and also was on the government's negotiating team with the rebels, until his illness prevented him from continuing. One of his many functions - and certainly a modest one compared to the selection given above - was to be a member of SIM's international advisory board, but it again demonstrated his * Head of Documentation of the UNHCR, Geneva; former director of SIM. 7

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