CHR chair defends Callamard

Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chair Chito Gascon on Sunday defended UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard from Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, saying the human rights worker was a professional known around the world for her “truthful” work.

“Special Rapporteur Callamard has longtime experience in human rights work that she is globally recognized for her competence and professionalism. She conducts her work around the world purposively … dealing with facts as she sees them. She is just being truthful,” Gascon told the Inquirer.

Cayetano complained to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at their first meeting in New York on Friday that Callamard was biased and had “prejudged” the human rights record of the Philippines.

Gascon said Cayetano “should be the first to understand and appreciate that the UN system takes the process of vetting persons [who are] given particular responsibility to conduct human rights investigations under the Special Rapporteur Mandate System.” —Nikko Dizon