UN SPECIAL rapporteurs insisted Thursday that their investigation of summary executions in the Philippines would be conducted on their terms, not those set by President Rodrigo Duterte.
In an e-mail, UN Special Rapporteur on Summary Executions Agnes Callamard said the terms of reference for fact-finding missions would be drafted by the rapporteurs and that the Philippines must accept these terms for the investigation to go through.
“The visits of the special rapporteur, as those of all United Nations human rights special rocedures, are governed by the terms of reference for fact-finding missions by special rapporteurs, which governments are requested to fully accept for any visit to take place,” Callamard said.
Agnes Callamard. Photo of en.wikipedia.org
In his invitation to the rapporteurs, Duterte said he should be allowed to publicly question them.
“The dates for the mission have not been fixed yet,” Callamard said, adding that the probe will take a one to two weeks.
In a briefing note along with information about the working methods for fact-finding missions, Callamard said it is important for any countries under the UN probe, to accept their terms of reference.
“These are essential guarantees which ensure that the mission delivers on its outcomes, to the benefit of all those involved,” Callamard said.
Under the terms of reference, the government commits to ensuring free, confidential and unsupervised interviews with victims, families of victims, legal representatives, detainees, and civil society representatives as a whole.
They also commit to ensuring free and unrestricted access to all regions as well as to all places of detention and facilities where detainees might be kept.
During a country visit, the rapporteur will examine the situation and formulate recommendations to the government and other parties on upholding the right to life.
The special rapporteur undertakes two country visits per year and reports her findings and recommendations to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Callamard’s letter was contrary to the recent statement from Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Charles Jose that no visit would take place until both the UN and the Philippines agree on the terms of reference, including the dates of the visit, places to visit, and the people to meet to interview.
In August, Callamard and Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health Dainius PÅ«ras urged Duterte to put an end to the current wave of extrajudicial killings of alleged drug users and pushers.
“We call on the Philippine authorities to adopt with immediate effect the necessary measures to protect all persons from targeted killings and extrajudicial executions,” Callamard said.
But Duterte slammed the call of the two rapporteurs and threatened to pull the Philippines out of the UN, only to say this was a joke later on.
Duterte has lashed out at the UN for criticizing his bloody war on drugs, but in September agreed to invite the agency to investigate allegations of summary executions.
More than 4,000 drug suspects have been killed since Duterte started his war on illegal drugs.
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch-Asia Division deputy director Phelim Kine called on the US and the European Union to signal their concern about Duterte’s bloody war on drugs by suspending all assistance to Manila’s police forces.
“The US should also publicly disclose information on Philippine police recipients of that assistance to determine if there have been any violations of the Leahy Law on Human Rights, which bars security force units implicated in human rights abuses from receiving US government-supplied training or equipment,” Kine said in a statement.
“Training police who are murderers just makes them better murderers,” he said.
“Is is clear that many of the [police] stations, especially those in the capital city of Manila–are collectively responsible for hundreds of deaths,” Kine said.
On Wednesday, US State Department spokesman John Kirby said his government has already decided to shift its police assistance program in the Philippines from anti-narcotics to maritime security.
Kirby admitted that the realigning of the assistance was made due to his government’s deep concern over the increase of alleged extrajudicial killings “by or at the behest” of the Philippine government.
“Since the beginning of this counternarcotics campaign, we decided the prudent thing to do was to refocus the way that assistance was being spent,” Kirby said, referring to President Duterte.
Kine, however, said that US and the EU should start expressing their concern on Duterte’s campaign against drugs by withdrawing all monetary assistance to the Philippine police.
Also on Thursday, the Network Against Killings in the Philippines slammed Duterte’s recent remarks blaming human rights advocates on the increasing drug problem in the country.
“NAK Philippines is appalled that President Duterte would even think of human rights activists as the enemy. His comment–that human rights is part of the drug problem and, as such, human rights advocates should be targeted, too–can be interpreted as a declaration of an open season on human rights defenders. We condemn it in the strongest term possible,” the group said.
Considering the alarming rate of summary and extrajudicial killings, the group said Duterte’s threat may give police officers and death squads a chance to also target those human rights advocates.
“We take this threat very seriously especially that it is issued by no less than the President himself,” the group said.
The group also urged Duterte to revoke his statement.
“We appeal to President Duterte to revoke this statement so as not to give police officers and the death squads out there the wrong impression that, in the war on drugs, human rights are also targeted,” it said.
“Human rights activists are not the enemy,” it added.
Human rights advocates called on Duterte to address not only the problem of drugs, but also extreme poverty, landlessness, contractual labor, war and displacement, shortage of housing and lack livelihood opportunities.
“These are the real crises of our nation, but are met with more violence, death, misogyny, sexism, vulgarity. The war on drugs has become government’s only concrete response to the pressing and complex issues facing the country today,” the group In Defense of Human Rights and Dignity Movement (iDEFEND) said.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat to kill human rights advocates criticizing his anti-drugs war had just revealed his real plan to lord it over the people, the group added.
The group also criticized the super majority in both houses of Congress which is now railroading anti-human rights legislation to create a police state.
“The state of national emergency on account of lawless violence remains in effect. The reintroduction of the death penalty, reducing the minimum age of criminal responsibility, calls for the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, calls for amendments to the anti-wiretapping law, Charter Change and the continuing derogation of the rule of law, are not measures to eliminate drugs and crime. They are laying the groundwork for an authoritarian rule of a new despot serving the interests of the old oligarchs to which he belongs,” the group said. With Rio N. Araja