The United Nations committee in Geneva expressed concern over the increase of extrajudicial killings in the waging of President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war against drugs, where more than 3,000 alleged Filipino drug addicts and dealers were killed since he assumed office.
In its latest report posted on its website on Thursday night, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights and experts of the UN Committee in Economic Social and Cultural Rights said that the poorest of the poor Filipinos appeared to be the target of the spate of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.
“In particular, experts were concerned about the extrajudicial killings which were related to the war on drugs, and which seemed to target the poorest population,” the UN stated in a press release.
During the two-day review of human rights in the Philippines, one of the experts also asked: “What were the plans to stop the extrajudicial killings, measure to prevent the current war on drugs and from becoming a war against the poor?”
The Philippine delegation replied that the government aims “to end the culture of impunity in extrajudicial killings.”
The delegates cited the establishment of a high-level inter-ministerial committee, where the Commission on Human Rights and the Ombudsman sat as observers.
This September, Duterte agreed to invite UN experts to investigate the increase in extrajudicial killings in the country.
He appointed Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to write a formal letter inviting UN rapporteurs to look into the issue.
But as of this week, Medialdea had yet to issue any invitation.
DFA spokesman Charles Jose said both the Philippines and the UN should agree on the terms of reference particularly the dates of the visit, places to visit, and the people to meet.
He also said the Philippine government will need to approve first the places where they will conduct the investigation.
“The government also needs to approve those victims or the victims’ family of extrajudicial killings before they can interview them. They need to ask permission with the government first,” he said.
The delegation of the Philippines consisted of the representatives of the National Economic and Development Authority, the Presidential Human Rights Committee, the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor and Employment, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the National Housing Authority, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, and the Permanent Mission of the Philippines to the United Nations Office.
The spate of drug-related killings was among of the many topics that the 18-member UN committee discussed during the review of human rights, ranging from topics about indigenous peoples, divorce bill, up to the recent extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.
The UN Committee on Economic, Social, Cultural Rights, composed of 18 independent human rights experts, reviewed the Philippines from September 28 to 29 in Geneva, Switzerland.
The review is an annual event as part of the obligation if all 164 signatories of the international covenant in economic, social and cultural rights, which was done in Geneva.
Other topics discussed were extrajudicial killings of human rights defenders; the situation of indigenous peoples in the southern Philippines or Mindanao which resulted to an ongoing conflict; land ownership involving indigenous peoples; investment efforts to tackle poverty; rights of persons with disabilities; working conditions in sweat shops where majority of employees are women; protection of informal workers; forced evictions to establish a public-private partnership projects, among others.
Aside from the Philippines, the committee has also reviewed countries like Costa Rica, Cyprus, Poland, Tunisia, Lebanon, and the Dominican Republic.
The finding are expected to be published on October 11.