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UN rapporteur on alleged EJKs sets conditions for PHL visit
United Nations (UN) special rapporteur Agnes Callamard specified nine conditions before she visits the Philippines to probe the rise in incidents of drug-related killings. (Photo: Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Flickr)
MANILA—The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) disclosed Thursday that United Nations (UN) special rapporteur Agnes Callamard has not answered directly the conditions set by President Rodrigo Duterte before they be allowed to conduct another inquiry on alleged extrajudicial killings in the country.
Instead, Callamard set her own conditions which was contained in her reply to the letter of invitation dated Sept. 26, 2016 sent by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.
DFA Spokesman and incoming Ambassador to Malaysia Charles Jose said the news was first disclosed during the budget hearing at the Senate.
He said despite asking conditions, Callamard has not accepted the invitation.
Asked who revealed the contents of Callamard’s reply, Jose said one of the senior undersecretaries told Senator Bam Aquino who sponsored the DFA budget at the plenary.
In her reply letter, the UN Rapporteur specified nine conditions before she visits the Philippines to probe the rise in incidents of drug-related killings.
Callamard’s conditions are:
- That the Philippines also extend an invitation to the UN special rapporteur on health;
- Freedom of movement in the whole country, including whole facilitation of transport, in particular restricted areas;
- Freedom of inquiry with regard to access to all prisons, detention centers, and places of interrogation;
- Contacts with central and local authorities;
- Contacts with representatives of NGOs, private institutions, and the media;
- Confidential and unsupervised contact with witnesses and other private persons, including persons deprived of their liberty considered necessary to fulfill the mandate of their job;
- Full access to all documentary material relevant to the mandate;
- Assurance by the government that persons, whether officials or private individuals who have been in contact with her will not, as a result, suffer threats or punishment or be subjected to judicial proceedings;
- Appropriate security arrangements without however restricting the freedom of movement of inquiry referred to above.
The President wanted to have a public debate between himself and the UN special rapporteur as one of the conditions.
Earlier DFA Secretary Perfecto Yasay decried the statements of two United Nations human rights rapporteurs who expressed alarm over the spate of killings in connection with the Duterte administration’s war on illegal drugs, calling their claims baseless and irresponsible.
Yasay said the UN rapporteurs are free to submit their request to conduct a probe on the killings, but stressed that “it doesn’t make sense…if they already made a conclusion that we violated the human rights of the people in this drug-related killings.”
He assured the world body and the international community that the government’s efforts to eradicate the global scourge is being done in accordance “with the rule of law and full respect for human rights.”
However, Yasay noted that the Duterte administration’s war on drugs is “very urgent and a critical domestic matter.”
Yasay accused the two rapporteurs of breaking protocol when they publicly criticized the government and made assumptions based on media reports even before they could actually investigate the killings.
He insisted that the rapporteurs are independent human rights experts, acted on their personal capacity, and that their views do not reflect the position of the UN.
