Rights group tells Duterte: Human rights not just concepts written on paper

A human rights group on Monday called out as "hypocritical" and "hollow" President Rodrigo Duterte's remark that the government will not evade its human rights obligations.

In a statement following Duterte's fifth State of the Nation Address, Karapatan cited Duterte's withdrawal of the Philippines from the International Criminal Court and his "maligning" of United Nations investigators who seek to look into the human rights situation in the country.

"Human rights obligations are not concepts which are merely written on paper. Human and people's rights should be respected, protected and realised in the daily lives of people—and these are not being done under your administration," Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said.

"You spit on, trample upon, and deride the recognition of even the most basic of rights: the right to live, with dignity," she said.

She said it was "ironic" for Duterte to claim he will not dodge his administration's human rights obligations and then announce his call for the reimposition of the death penalty in drug-related crimes.

The UN human rights chief has reported that the government's "heavy-handed" security approach has led to "serious" human rights violations. Extrajudicial killings in the country have been met with near impunity, according to the report presented to the UN Human Rights Council's recent session.

In the council's session, the Philippine government said it has created a committee that will review police anti-drug operations that resulted in deaths.

Palabay also countered the president's claim that martial law in Mindanao ended without abuses, citing alleged killings by paramilitaries and soldiers, the disappearance of a human rights worker, and the displacement of thousands of people because of the Marawi siege.

She said the deployment of the military in barangay development programs as part of government counterinsurgency efforts "will only result to the further militarization of civilian bureaucracy down to the barangay level... and give way to more military and police abuses in line with their implementation."

"From your hypocrisy on protecting and upholding human rights obligations while blatantly violating them to your own admission of playing a major role in the closure of ABS-CBN, Mr. President, you have only further unmasked yourself as a dictator and your regime as a de facto martial law," Palabay said.

"Your promise to protect human rights is hollow like all your promises of change to the people—and we will not stop in resisting your fascist regime until you and your militarist cohorts and loyalist oligarchs are held accountable," she said. — BM, GMA News