Universal Periodic Review draft makes 257 recommendations
(Eagle News) — The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) working group on periodic reviews has made a draft report recommending that the Philippines allow the United Nations Special Rapporteur to probe the human rights situation in the country without conditions, and for the country not to reimpose the death penalty.
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UNHRC’s working group was presented by Switzerland, Paraguay and Kenya containing 257 recommendations, including the request to accept a probe of the UN Special Rapporteur without conditions.
The report was drafted by the 47-member UPR working group. It also recommended that enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings be investigated in the country.
It also said that government should continue its efforts to protect its people from the drug menace, but that human rights values should continue to be upheld.
The report however made no mention if it would agree to the request of Senator, now newly appointed Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, to appoint a new UN Special Rapporteur to be sent to the Philippines.
Callamard’s objectivity questioned
Cayetano had complained to the UN human rights body that the present UN Special Rapporteur, Dr. Agnes Callamard, was not objective, nor was she impartial.
He said the Philippines would welcome any other special rapporteur from the UNHRC to probe the drug-related killings and violence in the country.
“Ang usual kapag ka may issue sa isang bansa, humihingi sila ng independent investigation and special rapporteur. Ang special rapporteur po hindi po ‘yan prosecutor na pupunta, na huhusgahan,” Cayetano said in a press conference late Wednesday night in Cambodia.
“They will go and work with the government to find the problem and recommend. So ang sinabi po natin, welcome basta’t independent at tsaka fair,” he added.
Malacanang had also earlier questioned Callamard’s professionalism and objectivity.
A Palace spokesperson pointed out that her visit to the Philippines in an unofficial capacity mainly to criticize the country’s drug war, was done while a Philippine delegation had been sent to the UN office in Geneva to report and explain the human rights situation in the Philippines.
Abella insisted that Callamard’s previous actions showed “that she would not be approaching her review of allegations concerning our country objectively or comprehensively.”
PHL delegation welcomes UN recommendations
Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra, a co-chair of Cayetano in the Philippines’ UN delegation, expressed gratitude to the UPR working group and the secretariat and all the 95-member states of the UNHRC for their review and recommendations for the country’s human rights situation.
He gave them the assurance that the presidential human rights committee will be immediately convened to review and study the next action on the recommendations.
China was among those countries which defended the Philippines during the UN periodic review.
It supported the Philippines’ drug war, saying that illegal drugs was the public enemy of mankind.
The Philippine delegation also thanked the ASEAN member-countries for their support for the country’s drug war.
The UPR draft report read: “The recommendations formulated during the interactive dialogue and listed below will be examined by the Philippines which will provide responses in due time, but no later than the 36th session of the Human Rights Council in September.”
Some 45-member states expressed alarm over the alleged crimes against humanity in the country, which media had blamed on President Rodrigo Duterte’s war against illegal drugs.
Media hype on killings
Cayetano, on the other hand, blamed the media for hyping the government’s drug war, to the point it bloated figures, such as the oft-repeated alleged 7,000 killings which he said were not true.
He said that the real figures showed that a total of 53,503 anti-illegal drug operations had been conducted in the first months of the Duterte government, and that during this time almost 65,000 drug suspects were arrested. Another 1.2 million drug pushers and users also surrendered, and these persons are alive. Some have already started undergoing rehabilitation, while government and private sector prepare to set up more treatment and rehab centers nationwide.
The UN human rights council’s UPR draft report will be circulated by e-mail to all member-states until Friday.
The member-states will then be given until May 26 to make editorial changes to the summary of the report, before this will be submitted to the secretariat.