41st
Human Rights Council session
Item 4: General Debate
Joint oral
statement delivered by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) on behalf
of OMCT, Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Franciscans
International, Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund, the International Federation for
Human Rights (FIDH), FORUM-Asia
Mr President:
In March 2019, the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights noted that several sources “estimate that up to
27,000 people may have been killed in the context of the campaign against
illegal drugs since mid-2016.”
Unlawful killings, including of children, carry on, and President
Rodrigo Duterte and his administration continue to explicitly encourage these
acts. In
June 2019, the scale and seriousness of the reported human rights violations
prompted 11 UN human rights experts to call on the Council to establish an
independent investigation into such violations.
Intimidations by government
officials at the highest levels against politicians, human rights defenders,
journalists, and several Special Procedures mandate holders have also been
rising.
At the 35th, 36th, and 38th sessions of the Council, Iceland, on
behalf of a group of States, explicitly called on the government “to take all
necessary measures to bring killings associated with the campaign against illegal drugs to an end and
cooperate with the international community to investigate all related deaths
and hold perpetrators accountable.”
In light of the failure of the government to effectively investigate and bring to justice those responsible, we urge all States to support the adoption of a resolution on the Philippines at this session, mandating the OHCHR to monitor and provide regular updates on the human rights situation to the Council, as the first step toward establishing an independent international investigation into extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations committed in the government’s ‘war on drugs.’.
Such a response is all the more
important given the Philippines obligations to uphold the highest standards in
human rights as a member of the Council.
Thank you.
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