Amnesty Int’l charges UN to probe Philippino’s Duterte over ‘crimes against humanity’

Rights group Amnesty International has called on the United Nations to conduct an “urgent” investigation into President of the Philippine Rodrigo Duterte’s “murderous war on drugs”.

Amnesty International also blasted Philippine police abuses after as former top enforcer defended recent deadly raids which has claimed thousands of casualties especially in Manila, the Philippines’ capital.

The human rights group said extrajudicial executions by police remain “rampant”, and the scale of abuses has already reached “the threshold of crimes against humanity”.

On Monday, Amnesty said its latest investigation showed police operate with “total impunity as they murder people from poor neighbourhoods whose names appear on manufactured ‘drug watch lists’ established outside of any legal process.”

Read also: How glow of the historic accord between Ethiopia and Eritrea has faded

“Three years on, President Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ continues to be nothing but a large-scale murdering enterprise for which the poor continue to pay the highest price,” Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty’s regional director for East and Southeast Asia, said in a statement.

“It is time for the United Nations, starting with its Human Rights Council, to act decisively to hold President Duterte and his government accountable.”

Amnesty said its latest investigation covered 27 deaths that took place in the province of Bulacan, just outside of Metro Manila, between May 2018 and April 2019.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now