The United Nation on Wednesday urged the UN Human Rights Council president Joaquin Alexander Maza Martelli to make an action on smear campaign against it Special Rapporteur on Summary Execution Agnes Callamard, who condemned President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war against illegal drugs, and its two other investigators.
In his letter, which was publicly posted in its official website, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein expressed his great concern over a number of “disgraceful incidents of personal threats and insults” directed against Callamard and two other Special Rapporteurs by different countries, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Iran.”
“They have recently been subjected to smear and hate campaigns, some involving incitement to violence: The Special Rapporteur on Myanmar; the Special Rapporteur on Summary Executions, in the context of discussions on the Philippines; and the Special Rapporteur on Iran,” Al-Hussein said.
“This is absolutely unacceptable. As Special Procedures are appointed by this Council, I call on you to consider what actions you may want to take to prevent these sorts of campaigns,” he said.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano earlier questioned the facts, impartiality and fairness of Callamard, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
Cayetano led the Philippine delegation in Geneva last month in presenting a report at the universal periodic review of the Philippines before the United Nations Human Rights Council.
“The system of sending special rapporteurs has oftentimes been effective. But sometimes this could create more harm than good especially when human rights is politicized,” Cayetano said.
Duterte had also criticized Callamard, who had contradicted his opinion that shabu causes brain damage during her visit in the Philippines last month.
The Philippines had tried to prevent Callamard from visiting the Philippines to attend a forum on drug-related issues but Callamard said she was still open to undertaking an official visit to the Philippines.
In the same letter, Al-Hussein again emphasized his “very serious concern,” saying that when other officials of the UN-country-signatories intimidate, arrest or harm these individuals, it is a clear message that “they are attacking a fundamental element of the work of this Council and the UN.”
“It is our responsibility to do all we can to protect them,” Al-Hussein said.”I must again emphasize my very serious concerns about intimidation and reprisals brought on by State officials against people who engage with the UN on human rights.
My own staff, the Special Procedures and Treaty Bodies rely on members of civil society and national human rights institutions, alongside many others, for insight and information. We count on their advice, their help – and even their pressure. We serve them – as do you, Excellencies,” he said.
The Philippines is one of the members of the UN and a signatory to uphold Human rights and adherence to the rule of law.
Al-Hussein said that all members of the UN have a particular responsibility to cooperate with the Council’s mechanism.
Resolution 60/251, which was set up in March 2006, calls on member-states to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights (and to) fully cooperate with the Council”.
But despite the resolution, Al-Hussein said there are several countries who has been refusing to adhere with the Council’s mechanism.
The Philippines, he said, has accepted three visits in the past five years but 23 other requests are pending; Indonesia has 21 pending requests for visits by the Special Procedure, and has received only two mandate-holders since 2008; Egypt has 11 pending requests for visits, with the most recent mission seven years ago; Nepal, a candidate for membership, has 16 pending requests for visits, with the most recent mission by a thematic mandate holder conducted in 2008; and Venezuela has 10, with its most recent visit by a thematic mandate holder conducted in the last century.
Most astonishingly, he said, despite having been elected to this Council in 2015, Burundi continues to commit some of the most serious human rights violations dealt with by the Council, while the Government has suspended all forms of cooperation with UN High Commission of Human Rights Office.
In September, the Council’s independent mission was declared persona non grata, and the current Commission of Inquiry has not been able to enter the country.
He added that in August, the two UN special Rapporteurs on Summary Executions Callamard and the Right on Health’s Danius Puras urged Duterte to put an end to the current wave of extrajudicial executions and killings of alleged drug users and pushers.
Duterte slammed the call of the two rapporteurs and thteatened that the Phjilippines will pull out from the UN, but later he said it was only a joke.
Agnes Callamard confirmed in November that she had accepted a government invitation to undertake a fact-finding mission in the Philippines in 2017, but later on rejected the government’s invitation due to Duterte’s pre-conditions in conducting the investigation, which she said were contrary to her mandate as Special Rapporteur.
Al-Hussein also criticized “thug-like leaders” that “openly defy, not only their own laws and constitutions, but also their obligations under international law: Where is their shame?”
Without mentioning names, Al-Hussein mentioned the remark delivered by President Rodrigo Duterte before soldiers during a recent visit in Iligan City.
Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella had explained that Dutete was “speaking with heightened bravado” when he made the “rape joke” before a crowd of soldiers after declaring martial law in Mindanao following the Maute group’s attack in Marawi City.
But Al-Hussein said, “Do they not feel disgusted with themselves when they incite or condone acts of violence and bigotry? When they remark that every soldier should be limited to three rapes of village women each, have they no conscience? Promising bounties for killing people – people not convicted of crime, or charged with crime, but merely suspected, or imagined, criminals, seeking to withdraw from laws to combat violence against women and domestic battery, claiming they represent a so-called “gender ideology, “ jailing principled judges and advocates, journalists, human rights defenders, university professors and teachers, and closing universities. Trading in malice, cruelty, insults and lies. What of their shame?” he added.
In September 2016, Al Hussein had criticized Duterte for statements that “display a striking lack of understanding of our human rights institutions and the principles which keep societies safe.”
He also urged the government to invite Callamard to probe the Duterte administration’s war against drugs.