{"id":116958,"date":"2017-09-09T05:59:18","date_gmt":"2017-09-09T09:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=116958"},"modified":"2017-09-09T05:59:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-09T09:59:18","slug":"human-rights-activists-call-for-un-probe-on-drug-war-killings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/09\/09\/human-rights-activists-call-for-un-probe-on-drug-war-killings\/","title":{"rendered":"Human rights activists call for UN probe on drug war killings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: New York-based Human Rights Watch Deputy Director for Asia Phelim Kine said that the \u2018abusive\u2019 drug war targets children and has reached a \u201cnew level of depravity.\u201d (Photo: Human Rights Watch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Human rights activists on Saturday said the allegedly summary executions of two teenagers has heighten the urgency for the United Nations to conduct an independent inquiry looking on the war on drugs of President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

New York-based Human Rights Watch Deputy Director for Asia Phelim Kine said that the \u2018abusive\u2019 drug war targets children and has reached a \u201cnew level of depravity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe apparent willingness of Philippine police to deliberately target children for execution marks an appalling new level of depravity in this so-called drug war,\u201d Kine said. \u201cThese killings demonstrate that Duterte\u2019s rejection of the rule of law has made all Filipinos potential \u2018drug-war\u2019 victims, no matter how young.\u201d<\/p>\n

On August 16, 17-year-old Grade 11 student Kian delos Santos was slain in an anti-drug police operation in Caloocan City. Police claimed it was a shootout, however, both witness accounts, forensic results, and CCTV footage showed that police intentionally killed delos Santos while he was in police custody.<\/p>\n

Two days after the death of Delos Santos, 14-year-old Grade 5 student Reynaldo De Guzman and his friend, 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz, were reportedly missing after leaving their home in Cainta, Rizal to buy midnight snacks. After ten days, Arnaiz was found dead in a morgue in Caloocan City, for\u00a0allegedly robbing a taxi driver and tied up in arresting officers in a shootout.<\/p>\n

On September 5, De Guzman’s body, on the other hand, was found floating in a creek in Nueva Ecija. A pathologist report indicated that de Guzman died from at least 30 stab wounds after his assailants wrapped his head in packing tape.<\/p>\n

HRW also stressed that the approval of a plan for the mandatory drug testing for all college students and applicants has imperiled children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe order permits local governments, the police, and other law enforcement agencies to \u201ccarry out any drug-related operation within the school premises\u201d with the approval of school administrators. This will effectively allow the police to extend their abusive anti-drug operations to college and university campuses, placing students at grave risk,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n

The human rights group also expressed concern on the willingness and capacity of the authorities to conduct a fair, impartial, and transparent probe into the drug war-related killings as lawmen implicated in the deaths\u00a0continue to get away with murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn July, police officials allowed the police officers facing homicide charges in the 2016 killing of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa, Sr. to return to work\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe officers were reinstated even though twin inquiries by the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine Senate reached the conclusion that the officers had committed \u201cpremeditated murder\u201d when they shot Espinosa to death in a Manila jail cell on November 5, 2016. Espinosa had surrendered to the police following public accusations by President Duterte that he was a drug trafficker. Both investigations rejected the officers\u2019 assertion that Espinosa died in a firefight in his cell after brandishing a concealed pistol,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

HRW emphazised that the efforts of the UN Human Rights Council to address the drug war is \u2018crucial\u2019, saying the council should press the Philippine government to accept an independent investigation on the alleged extrajudicial killings and to stop the government’s drug war.<\/p>\n

\u201cA fundamental obligation of every government is to protect the lives of its children, not to empower police and their agents to murder them,\u201d Kine said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil Duterte ends his abusive drug war and allows a UN-led international probe, child-killers among the police will continue to get away with murder,\u201d the directot added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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