"Despite attempts by the Philippine delegation to justify the Duterte administration’s war on drugs and to present a positive picture of its achievements on the political, economic, social and cultural rights of the people, most of the attending states still raised serious concerns on a host of human rights issues that remain unaddressed," lawyer Ephraim Cortez, co-head of the Philippine UPR Watch delegation to Geneva, said in a statement.

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PHL gov't gets failing grade in human rights review, advocates say

Published May 12, 2017 4:18pm

By MARLLY ROME BONDOC, GMA News

The Philippine government received a failing grade at the recently concluded UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) for its supposed inability to justify its claim that there is no "sudden wave" of state-sponsored killings in the country, human rights advocates said Friday.

"Despite attempts by the Philippine delegation to justify the Duterte administration’s war on drugs and to present a positive picture of its achievements on the political, economic, social and cultural rights of the people, most of the attending states still raised serious concerns on a host of human rights issues that remain unaddressed," lawyer Ephraim Cortez, co-head of the Philippine UPR Watch delegation to Geneva, said in a statement.

The UPR Working Group has adopted the recommendations that member-countries put forward during the dialogue between the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and Philippine officials.

Included in the report was the proposal to allow without conditions UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings Agnes Callamard to investigate the thousands of killings being blamed on President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.

It also called on the government to invite Callamard without further delay for an official visit in line with UN terms of reference.

France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary and Latvia were among the countries that called on the Philippine government to allow Callamard to conduct an investigation without any conditions and delay.

About 45 member-states expressed alarm over the alleged extrajudicial killings in the country. They suggested an investigation and recommended the Philippines not to reinstate capital punishment.

Cortez said the recommendations showed that "not much has changed in the human rights situation in the Philippines" as it was similar during the first and second cycles of UPR.

"The recommendations relating to women’s right, children’s right, the rights of migrant workers and of the indigenous peoples glaringly show that not much is being done by the Philippine Government to protect the rights of these vulnerable sectors, nor was there any improvement at all to ensure the protection of the peoples’ social-economic and cultural rights," he said.

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano led the Philippine government panel on presenting the human rights situation in the country before the UNHRC in Geneva.

During his presentation, Cayetano denied that there was a "sudden wave" of state-sponsored extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. He also asked the UNHRC to visit the Philippines to check on the situation.

He had also said that “fake news and alternative facts” made it appear that Duterte was “acting with impunity."

Meanwhile, Cortez said the Philippine UPR Watch welcomes the recommendations from UN member-countries.

"This is evidence not only of the lack of serious effort on the part of the Philippine Government to address these observations, but also of the ineffectiveness of its Philippine Human Rights Plan which did not at all help in curbing these violations,” he said.

Cortez, meanwhile, said the Philippine UPR Watch also plans to submit its report and recommendations on the human rights situation in the country to both panels of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines peace negotiations “as part of a process of taking the government to task to fulfill their obligation to heed the voice of human rights advocates from the country and abroad." —KBK, GMA News.

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