The Department of Justice on Tuesday said Dr. Morris Tidball-Binz, the United Nations Special Rapporteur (UNSR) on extrajudicial killings, is in the Philippines and is currently leading an international group of experts conducting the training on the Minnesota Protocol on the investigation of suspected unlawful deaths.
“The department is very happy to have Dr. Tidball-Binz back in the Philippines so we can learn from the best in the world and we will be able to deal with these cases like the best in the world,” Clavano told reporters.
The Minnesota Protocol refers to a set of international guidelines for the investigation of suspicious deaths, particularly those in which the responsibility of a State is suspected.
Clavano said the five-day training which started on July 3 at a hotel in Manila will end on Friday, July 7.
The training was organized by the United Nations Joint Program on Technical Cooperation and Capacity Building for Human Rights in the Philippines (UNJP) and the DOJ.
“Dr. Morris Tidball-Binz leads the five-day training which aim, among others, to further strengthen domestic accountability mechanisms to address human rights violations and abuses leading to increased accountability and justice and redress of victims,” he said.
Clavano said the team of experts led by Tidball Binz includes forensic pathology expert Dr. Stephen Cordner, who is a professor of forensic medicine at Monash University, and lawyer Kingsley Abbott, director of Global Accountability and International Justice at the International Commission of Jurists.
“Participants in the training includes senior level officials with significant involvement in investigations of potentially unlawful deaths from the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation, the NBI, DOJ, Commission on Human Rights and representatives from the civil society organizations,” he noted.
“The Minnesota Protocol on the investigation of potentially unlawful deaths which was signed in 2016 is today’s golden standard for the investigation and prevention of potentially unlawful deaths,” the DOJ official explained.
“Awareness, effective use and implementation of the Minnesota Protocol is an effective way of ensuring that all cases of potentially unlawful deaths are effectively investigated including the prevention of extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions,” he said.