In a 16-page report dated Sept. 6 and uploaded to the UN Human Rights Council’s website on Sept. 13, the commissioner said the Philippines should conduct prompt and transparent probes and provide remedies to victims’ families.
“The government took some initiatives to advance accountability for human rights violations and abuses,” the UN office said. “However, access to justice for victims of human rights violations and abuses remained very limited.”The presidential palace had not received a copy of the UN report, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said in reply to a Viber message seeking comment.
Citing a joint study by the University of the Philippines and Belgium’s Ghent University, Human Rights Watch said there have been 221 drug-related killings from January to August this year. He said the alleged murders of drug suspects in police raids were not crimes against humanity because these were not “attacks against the civilian population.”
In June, ICC Prosecutor Karim Ahmad A. Khan asked the ICC’s pre-trial chamber to reopen the probe since the Philippines had allegedly failed to show it had investigated crimes related to the campaign. The Department of Justice has brought five of the 52 cases involving 150 police officers to court since it started its own probe last year.