MANILA - A group of peoples' and civil society organizations on Thursday launched an independent international probe into the human rights situation in the Philippines.
The creation of InvestigatePH was prompted by the October 2020 UN Human Rights Council resolution that only called for support for the Philippines human rights promotion through technical cooperation and capacity-building, short of an independent international probe that rights groups have been asking for.
InvestigatePH will cover incidents since the start of the Duterte administration in July 2016 up to end of this year, unless there are supervening events, the group said. “This is most definitely a global issue. The world community, I do believe, has a responsibility to speak out. We must not allow the call for human rights to be hijacked. Accountability must be part of the justice and democratic system,” she said.
Rev. Michael Blair, general secretary of the United Church of Canada, said it is important to amplify the voices of Filipinos in the international community, while for Rev. Dr. Chris Ferguson, general secretary of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the probe is speaking truth to power. "The adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 will continue to hold us accountable to our commitment to protect human rights, especially in conflict. To this, we urge everyone to join us in resisting radicalization and seeking a just end to all violence," the AFP said in a statement issued by its public affairs office.