{"id":194690,"date":"2018-12-20T05:29:52","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T10:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=194690"},"modified":"2018-12-20T05:29:52","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T10:29:52","slug":"palace-finds-un-rapporteurs-call-irresponsible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/12\/20\/palace-finds-un-rapporteurs-call-irresponsible\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace finds UN Rapporteur’s call \u2018irresponsible’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Michel Forst at his public lecture at the Heinrich B\u00f6ll Stiftung of Phnom Penh (Photo<\/a>: UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Michel Forst\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday slammed United Nations Special Rapporteur (UNSR) Michel Forst for his “irresponsible” call to end all the alleged forms of violence against human rights defenders.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Forst\u2019s recent call \u201cis not only reckless but irresponsible as well for it not only demeans the integrity of UNSR system but the entire UN mechanism itself\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fed up with this practice of using the UN as a platform to parrot baseless criticisms of local interest groups who are supported by resentful politicians belonging to the opposition,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long has the UN been used by these detractors as a tool for vilification. UNSRs should be less gullible as this reinforces the President\u2019s contempt for them who have consistently manifested bias against the Philippines,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the Philippines\u2019 recent election for a fifth term as one of the UN\u2019s 165 member-states \u201cbolsters\u201d the country\u2019s position that respect for human rights and its advocates is being upheld by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Mr. Forst only checked his facts first, he would have known that organizations presenting themselves as so-called human rights defenders never had it so good under the Duterte administration,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

He assured that human rights advocates in the Philippines continue to \u201cfully exercise all their rights to air issues and concerns related to their advocacies in an environment that is free and secure from any threat or harassment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Panelo challenged the local groups that have been feeding the UNSR with false information to submit their alleged cases of violations against their members to proper authorities.<\/p>\n

He said the Philippines has an Inter-Agency Committee created under Administrative Order No. 35 in 2012, which is tasked with handling cases of extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances and other “grave violations” of the right to life and liberty.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless they can properly do so, we stand by our firm admonition of these groups to refrain from making a fool of these UNSRs, a mockery of the UN, as well as using their allegations as leverage to secure financial resources from over-trusting funding institutions,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday slammed United Nations Special Rapporteur (UNSR) Michel Forst for his “irresponsible” call to end all the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":194692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-jelly-musico","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}