Zeid urges investigation into Philippines president’s
claim to have killed three people
GENEVA (20 December 2016) – The UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Tuesday urged the Philippines judicial
authorities to launch investigative processes following last week’s admission by the President of the
Philippines that as Mayor of Davao he had killed people, and encouraged others
to do the same.
President Duterte told business leaders at the
presidential palace on 14 December that he had patrolled the streets personally
on his motorcycle and killed people. In an interview with the BBC on Friday he
confirmed he had personally killed “about three” people during his term as
mayor. Mr Duterte served as mayor for three terms between 1988-2016. He has
previously stated the three people killed in 1988 were suspected of rape and kidnapping.
“Such acts directly contravene the rights enshrined in
Article III of the Philippine Constitution,” the High Commissioner said. “The
killings described by President Duterte also violate international law,
including the right to life, freedom from violence and force, due process and
fair trial, equal protection before the law, and innocence until proven guilty.
As a government official, if he encouraged others to follow his example, he may
also have committed incitement to violence.”
“The Philippines judicial authorities must demonstrate
their commitment to upholding the rule of law and their independence from the
executive by launching a murder investigation,” the UN human rights chief said.
“The killings committed by Mr. Duterte, by his own admission, at a time when he
was a mayor, clearly constitute murder. It should be unthinkable for any
functioning judicial system not to launch investigative and judicial proceedings when someone has openly
admitted being a killer.”
Zeid said the President’s repeated calls for the police,
military and the general public to engage in a ‘war on drugs’, bringing people
in ‘dead or alive’, has fostered an environment of alarming impunity and
violence. Since assuming the presidency
on 30 June, reports suggest a total of over 6,100 people have been killed
either by police, or by vigilantes and mercenaries, apparently acting in
response to the President’s war on drugs. In his public comments last week, Mr
Duterte promised “For as long as there are drug lords, this campaign will go on
until the last day of my term and until all of them are killed.”
“Despite police investigating thousands of the deaths
perpetrated by vigilantes, there is surprisingly little information on actual
prosecutions,” said Zeid. “Children as young as five years old have been the
innocent victims of this appalling epidemic of extra-judicial killings.”
Zeid said that repeated statements indicating that
immunity would be provided to police officers who engaged in human rights
violations in the line of duty were “a direct violation of all democratic
safeguards that have been established to uphold justice and the rule of law.”
“Credible and independent investigations must be urgently
re-opened into the killings in Davao, as well as into the shocking number of
killings that have occurred across the country since Mr. Duterte became
president,” said Zeid. “The perpetrators must be brought to justice, sending a
strong message that violence, killings and human rights violations will not be
tolerated by the State and that no one is above the law.”
The High Commissioner expressed his full support to last
Friday’s statement by the UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes
Callamard, calling on the Government of the Philippines to lift a series of
preconditions it imposed on her planned visit to investigate the alleged
extra-judicial killings of suspected drug dealers.
ENDS
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