41° período de sesiones del Consejo de Derechos Humanos - Debate General : Declaración oral conjunta sobre la situación de derechos humanos en Filipinas

Joint oralstatement delivered by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) on behalfof OMCT, Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), FranciscansInternational, Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund, the International Federation forHuman Rights (FIDH), FORUM-Asia

Mr President:

In March 2019, the UN HighCommissioner for Human Rights noted that several sources “estimate that up to27,000 people may have been killed in the context of the campaign againstillegal drugs since mid-2016.”

Unlawful killings, including of children, carry on, and PresidentRodrigo Duterte and his administration continue to explicitly encourage theseacts. InJune 2019, the scale and seriousness of the reported human rights violationsprompted 11 UN human rights experts to call on the Council to establish anindependent investigation into such violations.

Intimidations by governmentofficials at the highest levels against politicians, human rights defenders,journalists, and several Special Procedures mandate holders have also beenrising.

At the 35th, 36th, and 38th sessions of the Council, Iceland, onbehalf of a group of States, explicitly called on the government “to take allnecessary measures to bring killings associated with the campaign against illegal drugs to an end andcooperate with the international community to investigate all related deathsand hold perpetrators accountable.”

In light of the failure of the governmentto effectively investigate and bring to justice those responsible, we urge allStates to support the adoption of a resolution on the Philippines at thissession, mandating the OHCHR to monitor and provide regular updates on thehuman rights situation to the Council, as the first step toward establishing anindependent international investigation into extrajudicial killings and otherhuman rights violations committed in the government’s ‘war on drugs.’.

Such a response is all the moreimportant given the Philippines obligations to uphold the highest standards inhuman rights as a member of the Council.

Thank you.