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Doctor of Juridical Science student Perfecto Caparas, LL.M. '05, appealed to the Holy See and the United Nations General Assembly to quell the mass atrocities in the Philippines that have reportedly claimed the lives of over 20,000 people in just two years of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.

“Pope Francis needs to officially denounce the widespread and systematic killings,” Caparas said. He urged the Vatican to “call upon the Church and the people to resist.”

At the same time, Caparas stressed the need for the U.N. General Assembly to “declare a state of grave human rights emergency in the Philippines and create a fact-finding mission” to probe the mass killings. He appealed to the U.N. to “issue calls for individual and collective state actions, including mounting vigorous, coordinated and sustained political dialogues and diplomatic pressure” upon the government. He underscored the need to “weaken and crush the state’s ability to kill by, among others, stopping the supply of arms.”

Caparas, who is originally from the Philippines, made the twin appeals during his presentation titled, "Forging Resistance, Sharpening and Spiritualizing Human Rights Praxis in the Era of Impunity, Crimes against Humanity and the International Criminal Court," at a two-day conference organized by the Maynooth University Department of Law. The conference was dubbed "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at Seventy; A Review of Successes and Challenges." It took place in County Kildare, Ireland June 21 and 22, 2018.

In the photo, Caparas, left, is with Professor Michael O’Flaherty, Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.

Caparas is IU McKinney's Associate Director of Graduate Programs.