(Eagle News)– United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Tuesday (September 13) criticized President Rodrigo Duterte for his statements regarding human rights.
“The President of the Philippines’s statements of scorn for international human rights law display a striking lack of understanding of our human rights institutions and the principles which keep societies safe,” Al Hussein commented in his speech at the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.
“Fair and impartial rule of law is the foundation of public confidence and security. Empowering police forces to shoot to kill any individual whom they claim to suspect of drug crimes, with or without evidence, undermines justice. The people of the Philippines have a right to judicial institutions that are impartial, and operate under due process guarantees; and they have a right to a police force that serves justice,” Al Hussein added.
The human rights top official also urged the Philippine government to invite the UN Special Rapporteurs following the extrajudicial killings in the administration’s war on drugs.
A month earlier, UN Special Rapporteurs Agnes Callamard and Dainius Puras criticized the Philippine government to stop the summary executions linked to illegal drugs.
Duterte, as an answer to the criticisms, threatened to have the country withdraw its membership from the UN.
The President turned down a bilateral meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit last week. Duterte also skipped the ASEAN-UN meeting scheduled under the summit.
