Karapatan: Duterte ‘posturing’ at UN an attempt to evade accountability

Human rights alliance Karapatan on Wednesday claimed that President Rodrigo Duterte's remarks before the United Nations General Assembly were a "desperate attempt" to evade accountability.

Duterte was "posturing in making desperate pleas before the international community that is growing increasingly critical of his human rights record and tyrannical rule," Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said.

In his first speech before the UNGA, the Philippine president accused his "detractors" of posing as human rights advocates "while preying on the most vulnerable humans; even using children as soldiers or human shields in

He told the UN that his administration is committed to protecting human rights against terrorism, crime, and illegal drugs and will take part in "open dialogue and constructive engagement" with the international body.

“But these must be done in full respect of the principles of objectivity, noninterference, non-selectivity and genuine dialogue. These are the fundamental bases for productive international cooperation on human rights,” he said.

Karapatan's Palabay, however, said that if Duterte was sincere about engaging with the UN, he would have allowed its human rights chief and special rapporteurs to freely investigate the human rights situation in the Philippines.

"But instead, their requests for such are met with threats of violence, wild accusations of foreign meddling, and demeaning insults," Palabay said, adding that the government is also "finding ways" to evade an independent investigation.

She claimed that the anti-terrorism law, which was passed this year as the country grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, is intended to target government critics and human rights advocates.

Duterte had told the UNGA that the new law will provide for an “effective legal framework” in stamping out terrorism in the country.

The anti-terrorism law is the subject of over 30 petitions alleging its danger to basic rights before the Supreme Court.

"Duterte’s lies are in full display before the international community, and now more than ever, the international community must assert that the UN Human Rights Council should exercise its mandate to conduct an independent and impartial investigation into the human rights situation in the Philippines," Palabay said.

"They have to act now to hold Duterte accountable for his lies and attacks on the people," she said.

The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) has also appealed to the UN Human Rights Council to investigate and monitor the Philippines' "disturbing" human rights situation.

Through its transitional president, Filipino lawyer Edre Olalia, the IADL said that the anti-terrorism law "provides the framework for more arbitrary detention because it is an overly broad statute."

Olalia made the statement in response to the report of the council's working group on arbitrary detention. He said the IADL agrees that violations of the right to legal assistance makes a detention arbitrary.