Cayetano to UN Human Rights Council: All we want is ‘fairness’ in the UN led probe into drug war

All the Philippines wants is fairness in probe of the United Nations as regards in war on illegal drugs.

The comment came after Iceland’s foreign minister Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson in his speech in the opening of the 37th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, Switzerland to have the Philippines investigated for its alleged human rights violations.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque in a previous statement that the Philippines is open to any United Nations probe provided it will not be done by Agnes Callamard. *

DFA Secretary Allan Cayetano and UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard (photo credit to ABS-CBN)

Roque said and explained that the UN Special Rapporteur should be unbiased and credible.

“Again, if they’re going to send a Special Rapporteur to the Philippines, it must be someone credible, someone who is an authority in the field that they seek to investigate in, and must be objective and unbiased,” Roque said.

Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Pater Cayetano speaking before the the UN Human Rights Council,reaffirms the country’s readiness to cooperate with the mechanisms of the council.

"All we ask for is fairness. There are 7.5 billion people in the world; send us anyone except one who has already prejudged us, and who, by any measure, cannot be considered independent, more so, objective," Cayetano said in his speech, referring to UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Agnes Callamard.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte demanded a public debate with the UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callmard when she was supposed to visit the country last year. The visit was for her to look into the extrajudicial killings and summary executions brought about by the Duterte administration's war against the illegal drugs. Callamard rejected the debate as it would be a breach of the established protocol of the UN Human Rights Council. *

"When a UN Special Rapporteur cries out, like the Queen in Alice in Wonderland, 'First the judgment, then the trial', when she culls evidence only for what might support her prejudgment, she loses the moral high ground and is stripped of any credibility," Cayetano told the Human Rights Council.

 

Report from PhilStar