Duterte among world leaders who undermined human rights — Amnesty

MANILA, Philippines — World leaders have abandoned human rights, and some, including President Rodrigo Duterte, have rolled out policies that seek to undermine the rights of millions, a rights group said on Thursday. 

In its report, The State of the World’s Human Rights, Amnesty International said the feeble response of world leaders to crimes against humanity, war crimes and other violations in many parts of the world showed that governments had been dialing back decades of hard-won protections.

“The specters of hatred and fear now loom large in world affairs, and we have few governments standing up for human rights in these disturbing times. Instead, leaders such as al-Sisi, Duterte, Maduro, Putin, Trump and Xi are callously undermining the rights of millions,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of the rights group. 

“The feeble response to crimes against humanity and war crimes from Myanmar to Iraq, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen underscored the lack of leadership on human rights. Governments are shamelessly turning the clock back on decades of hard-won protections,” he added. 

In its section on the Philippines, Amnesty International said that thousands had been killed by security forces and other armed individuals in the government’s war on drugs.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, in a privilege speech on Wednesday, claimed that the number of drug-related deaths had already risen to more than 20,000, based on the government’s accomplishment report.

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It also noted the threat to human rights activists coming from Duterte and his allies and the extension of military rule in Mindanao, raising fears of more rights abuses in the island of 22 million.

Echoing previous iterations, the group said that the widespread killings of suspected drug criminals appeared to be systematic, planned, organized and encouraged by authorities and may constitute crimes against humanity.

The Amnesty report also said that critical human rights activities and journalists in the Philippines faced threats and intimidation and worked in dangerous and at times deadly environments.

Just recently, the corporate license of local news outfit Rappler, which has been one of the most critical of Duterte and his policies, was canceled by the Securities and Exchange Commission over a supposed violation on the constitutional prohibition on foreign ownership of media firms.

This week, its Palace reporter was banned from entering the presidential complex and covering the president’s engagements for supposedly publishing false information. 

Amnesty International said that the world was now reaping the results of societies encouraged to hate, scapegoat and fear minorities as shown in the “horrific” military campaign against the Rohingya people in Myanmar, which the United Nations called a “textbook case” of ethnic cleansing.

“The transparently hateful move by the US government in January to ban entry to people from several Muslim-majority countries set the scene for a year in which leaders took the politics of hate to its most dangerous conclusion,” Shetty said. 

The group also documented abuses by both Islamist militants and Philippine security forces in the war in Marawi City, which claimed thousands of lives many of whom were rebels.

Amnesty said that the plan of the government to reintroduce death penalty was in violation of the country’s international obligations especially because the Philippines was a party to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, which aimed to abolition the measure in many states.  

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