SEVENTEEN industrialized countries and 17 developing nations have expressed serious concern over the bloody antidrugs war launched by President Duterte at the third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva, Switzerland, of the human-rights situation in the Philippines.
Among the critics are the United States, Germany, France, Canada, Japan, Italy, Australia, Austria, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland and Luxembourg.
The others are Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ghana, Guatemala, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia and Timor-Leste.
Under the UPR, the human-rights situation in each UN member-country is reviewed every four years at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
Countries from every UN region expressed concern over the deaths in connection with the “drug war”, with many calling for probes into the killings, and accountability for the perpetrators, none of whom was ever arrested or prosecuted.
At least 7,000 people, mostly poor urban residents, have been killed in connection with the drug war since June 30, the day Duterte took office, said John Fisher, Geneva director of the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“Duterte has repeatedly urged the killing of drug dealers and users, stating, for example, on August 6, 2016: ‘My order is to shoot to kill you. I don’t care about human rights, you better believe me’,” Fisher added.
“The Philippines is facing a growing chorus of international concern at the human cost of President Duterte’s murderous ‘war on drugs’,” he noted.
“The government’s denial and deflection of criticism shows it has no intention of complying with its international obligations. The UNHRC should establish an international inquiry and, if killings without accountability continue, reconsider the Philippines’s council membership,” Fisher stressed.
EU parliamentarian calls for end to killings
THE Philippine UPR Watch delegation met with members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Monday to seek support for a just and lasting peace, and galvanize universal condemnation for extrajudicial killings under the Duterte administration.
Francesco Giorji, attending on behalf of Pier Antonio Panzeri, chairman of the European Parliament Subcommitee for Human Rights, assured the UPR Watch delegation of their support for the group’s calls for a stop to all summary killings.
Giorji was accompanied by other members of the subcommittee secretariat in separate meetings that were held at the MEP offices.
MEP Estefan Eck of Germany said he will definitely relay the UPR Watch’s message to his colleagues at the Delegation for the Relations with the Lands of Southeast Asia and the Union of Southeast Asian states.
An independent, Eck belongs to the Confederal Group of the United European Left-Nordic Green Left.
Marie Christine Vergiat of France expressed her complete agreement that genuine peace in the country cannot be achieved unless the roots of the armed conflict in the Philippines are resolved.
While acknowledging the high degree of difficulty of being a human-rights defender in the Philippines, she wished everyone a productive session in Geneva and thanked the delegation for sharing their views with the European Parliament.
The Philippine UPR Watch delegation is in Europe for the Third Cycle of the UN Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights in the Philippines held on May 8 in Geneva, where Sen. Alan Peter S. Cayetano delivered the Philippine government’s report on the implementation of recommendations made during the previous UPR in 2012.
2 comments
If only for their grossly irresponsible claim to Filipino audiences four days ago that methamphetamine or shabu doesn’t damage the brain, the UN should summarily fire Agnes Callamard and her meth-legalization advocate-partner Dr. Carl Hart. Findings of the U.S. National Institute of Drug Abuse clearly show that “Addiction [to methamphetamine or shabu] is a chronic, relapsing disease, characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use and accompanied by functional and molecular changes in the brain.” How eroded should the skull of supposedly knowledgeable UN experts be to make such an outlandishly false claim against all evidence to the contrary? To protect the well-being of the Filipino people, Callamard and Hart should also be declared by the Philippine government as personas non grata and be permanently banned from setting foot on Philippine soil ever again.
Callamard should be fired and also all policemen who are putting justice on their own hands.