EJK cases in PH submitted to the UN

United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial/Summary or Arbitrary Executions Agnes Callamard. (Photo: Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

A human rights group in the Philippines has submitted a letter of allegation to United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial/Summary or Arbitrary Executions Agnes Callamard where cases of extrajudicial killings in the country were documented.

KARAPATAN Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights in a statement said that they documented 47 victims of extrajudicial killing in the Philippines under the Duterte administration.

In her letter to Callamard, Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said, “The victims of killings are peasants; many faced harassment and vilification by the military because of their advocacy and actions to defend people’s rights and are thus considered as human rights defenders.”

The letter was submitted to the UN a month before the 3rd cycle of the Universal Periodic Review on the Philippines at the UN Human Rights Council where the “human rights record of a country will be examined by other State.”

The cycle covers the last four years of the Aquino administration and the first months of Duterte in office.

KARAPATAN have also submitted the same reports during the Arroyo and Aquino administrations.

According to Palabay, Karapatan documented at least 1, 206 victims of extrajudicial killings under the Arroyo administration while 334 victims were recorded under Aquino’s government.