MALACAÑANG on Tuesday dismissed as irrelevant the call of Iceland’s foreign minister urging the United Nations Human Rights Council to probe the human rights violations in the Philippines in connection with the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, saying it was an issue that should not be taken seriously.
“The statement of the Iceland Ambassador is an expression of his home state, but it’s an expression that we don’t have to heed,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque told reporters.
He also said he would recommend to President Rodrigo Duterte a different United Nations special rapporteur to investigate the government’s war on drugs.
He said Agnes Callamard, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, was unfit to conduct an “objective and unbiased” inquiry given her earlier statements against the government’s anti-drug campaign.
Iceland Foreign Minister Gudlaugur
Thór Thórdarson welcomed the International Criminal Court’s earlier announcement it would conduct a preliminary examination into the killings linked to the Philippines’ war on drugs, but challenged the Council to do more.
But Roque said that for all those familiar with the Special Rapporteur system, all investigations must be consented to by state parties.
He said no state could be compelled to undergo an international probe without its consent.
“There’s no one that can compel a state party to allow an investigation if it does not want to do so,” Roque said.
“Again, if they’re going to send a Special Rapporteur to the Philippines, it must be someone credible, someone who is an authority in the field that they seek to investigate in, and must be objective and unbiased.”
Roque said as a Presidential Adviser on Human Rights, he would recommend at least one rapporteur be allowed to conduct an investigation here.
“I will recommend [someone to] be allowed to conduct an investigation, but I can’t divulge for now which rapporteur this is, but not Agnes Callamard,” Roque said.
“As I have said before, it’s her fault that the home state does not want her in.”