(We yield this space to the statement of the human rights alliance Karapatan due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
EIGHTEEN States defied fake news, disinformation and threats as they voted for the adoption of the Iceland-led United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC) resolution calling for an investigation on human rights violations in the Philippines. Maraming salamat po.
We call out Philippine government functionaries for their deliberately vile actions to sabotage the resolution. They have squandered millions of taxpayers’ funds and mobilized diplomats to campaign against the Filipino people’s clamor for justice. But on July 11, 2019, 18 members of the UN HRC, with the support of 23 other States, saw through the lies.
Government mouthpieces took potshots at the “minimal” support for the resolution at the UN HRC and have once again used their forked tongues in invoking the “sovereignty” card. These are shameless diatribes that aim to downplay the political significance of the adopted resolution. These are paltry excuses deliberately meant to gloss over the fact that the Philippine government has ratified 12 out of 13 international human rights treaties and is a signatory to numerous international human rights instruments that it is obliged to respect, uphold and implement.
The Philippine government is not a champion of human rights, contrary to its self-serving claims. It is not remaining true to the cause of human rights nor is it rescuing human rights from its misuse. Instead, these desperate and repetitive lines for defending these murderous policies are indicative that the government is stripped bare and anxious to be scrutinized in accordance with the binding human rights treaties and instruments that it has signed. Many have been killed in line with the war on drugs and the counterinsurgency campaign; their families, children, relatives, multiplied hundred times over, will continue echoing the call for justice and accountability.
After the International Criminal Court’s acceptance of complaints against the government, this UN HRC process is among the significant intergovernmental mechanisms in play. The junkets did not work, the bullying did not work, the reprisals did not work. If the Philippine government shuns this process, then it should stop its hypocrisy and resign from the UN Human Rights Council.
This will not necessarily end the policies and campaigns that have wreaked havoc in the lives of Filipino communities and families, but the aggregate effect of all parallel efforts to exact accountability – both domestically and internationally – should hopefully bring about the change in policy and leadership that truly prioritizes human rights. The struggle for justice and accountability, amid the worsening human rights situation in the country, progresses. So much is yet to be done, but the stage is set.
