UN rights body presses PH on drug killings

Despite taking verbal abuse from President Rodrigo Duterte, the European Union (EU) continued to express “deep concern” over the high death toll under the administration’s anti-illegal drugs campaign.

During the 36th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland, the EU called on the Philippine government to investigate the killing of thousands of suspected drug users and dealers since Duterte launched his war on drugs shortly before assuming office in June last year.

In a statement delivered on Sept. 19, the EU said the fight against drug crime and drug syndicates should be carried out “in full compliance with due process, national law and international human rights law.”

“The EU remains deeply concerned about the high number of killings,” the 28-nation bloc said.

“It is important that all cases of death should be promptly and effectively investigated in an impartial and transparent manner, which ensures appropriate prosecution of those responsible,” it added.

The UNHRC is an intergovernmental body made up of 47 states that seek to promote and protect human rights around the world.

Several times, Mr. Duterte has assailed the EU, the UN and the United States, for criticizing the antinarcotics campaign that has resulted in thousands of extrajudicial killings and other abuses.

“Suspicion of extrajudicial killings has now become so widespread that the initials EJK have reportedly become a verb in some communities, as in ‘he was EJKed’,” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said when he addressed the UNHRC last Sept. 11.