UN rights boss criticizes Duterte, Trump for supporting torture, EJKs

The top United Nations human rights official has criticized Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and U.S. President Donald Trump for "breaking long-held taboos" in their respective support for torture and extra-judicial killings (EJKs).

"The dangers to the entire system of international law are therefore very real," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said in a speech delivered on Monday night in London.

In June last year, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned then incoming President Duterte's stand on EJKs, voicing particular concern over his comments seen as justifying murdering journalists.

Two months later, in August, UN special rapporteurs Agnes Callamard and Dainius Puras called on the Philippine government to stop the EJKs of persons linked to illegal drugs.

In response, Duterte threatened to "separate from the United Nations" amid continuing criticism from rights experts over the rising death toll attributed to his administration's campaign against drugs.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano last May flew to Geneva, Switzerland to defend the Duterte administration's drug war before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), as he criticized Callamard, who Cayetano said should be "open, independent, and willing" to engage the Philippine government in a constructive dialogue.

At the time of Cayetano's Geneva trip, Callamard took a controversial "academic visit" to the Philippines, during which she expressed her willingness to undertake an official visit to the Philippines, and possibly an investigation, once the government lifts the conditions that were set last year by Duterte.

In the first 11 months of Duterte's rule, police said 3,155 suspects were shot dead in anti-drug operations. Critics maintained that many of them were summarily executed.

Police said they have investigated a further 2,000 drug-related killings, and have yet to identify a motive in at least another 7,000 murders and homicides.

Apart from the UN, Duterte has also earlier trained his sights on the European Union — which had likewise criticized the administration's bloody drug war — and hurled expletives at the international body.

Trump, May

Before Trump's presidential victory, Zeid had already criticized the eventual US president for threatening international stability, especially with controversial immigration policies and alleged torture tactics.

Similar to Duterte, the Trump administration, earlier this month, threatened to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council due to the body's "chronic anti-Israel bias," even as the US slammed the council for failing to address abuses in Iran and Venezuela.

In his speech on Monday night, Zeid also criticized Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May for her election campaign remarks suggesting that laws could be overturned if they stymied the fight against terrorism.

"Whatever the intention behind her remarks, they were highly regrettable, a gift from a major Western leader to every authoritarian figure around the world who shamelessly violates human rights under the pretext of fighting terrorism," he said. — with Reuters/MDM, GMA News