PH rejects ‘politically partisan, one-sided’ UNCHR resolution

The Philippine government rejects the “politically partisan and one-sided” resolution that would mandate the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to conduct a “comprehensive” review of the human rights situation in the country.

“The Philippines rejects this resolution. It cannot, in good conscience, abide by it,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said in a statement read by the Philippines’ Permanent Representative to the United Nations Evan Garcia after the rights council agreed to adopt the Iceland-led text during its 41st session in Geneva.

“We will not accept a politically partisan and one-sided resolution, so detached from the truth on the ground,” Locsin’s statement further read.

United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in session (photo credit to UN)

18 out of 47 member states of the UNHRC voted in favor of the resolution, 14 voted no while 15 nations abstained.

“We invoke the government’s great power – and therefore, commensurate responsibility – to protect human rights as multilateral bodies cannot. Foremost among those rights is the right to be protected from crime by the state,” he said.

“Do not presume to threaten states with accountability for a tough approach to crushing crime, at which some of your countries are complicit at worst and tolerant at best,” he further said. “You don’t have the wherewithal, so all you can do is insult. The United Nations is a collection of sovereignties and not a sovereign collective.”

The foreign affairs secretary likewise argued that the resolution “was not universally adopted, making its validity highly questionable.”

“It does not represent the will of the Council, much less that of the developing countries who are always the target of such resolutions,” he said.

Locsin added that western countries had “pushed for this resolution in the confidence that the world has forgotten what they did and what should have been done to them had there been a Human Rights Council.”

More than two dozen other countries — mostly Western nations — backed the resolution, namely Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovenia, Sweden, United Kingdom of Great Britain, and Northern Ireland.

“It was pushed with the arrogance that developing countries must not stand up to them even if we can and as we hereby do. There will be consequences,” Locsin said.

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Report from  PDI