MANILA, Philippines – Attorney General Jesus Crispin Remulla is leaving for Geneva to brief the Philippine government’s human rights efforts at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The Philippines’ human rights record will be reviewed through the HRC’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the fourth time on Monday.
On his radio show, Remulla said he had many reports to file, adding the nine new cases of alleged “abuse of power” by some law enforcement officials involved in the anti-drug crusade under the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
“Files are moving. We identified them one by one,” Remulla said, referring to cases handled through the National Bureau of Investigation, which is a firm of his department.
Asked if the instances were similar to extrajudicial executions, Remulla said yes, but clarified that it is “abuse of power” or “abuse of authority” and “other bad things that were done” in the country.
“The abuse of force is state policy. We want to tell them that,” he added.
In a two-page statement, Remulla said he will lead the Philippine government delegation that will participate in the fourth circular of the Philippine UPR.
The reviews are on the following documents: the national report: data provided through the State under review; data contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as special procedures, human rights treaty bodies and other United Nations entities; and data provided through other stakeholders, aggregating national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.
The UPR is an exclusive procedure that comes to the periodic review of the human rights records of the 193 UN member states. Since its first assembly in April 2008, all 193 UN Member States have been reviewed 3 times in the first, time and 3rd cycles of the UPR.
During the fourth UPR cycle, States should re-specify the steps they have taken to implement the recommendations made in their previous reviews that they have committed to monitoring and highlighting recent human rights developments in the country.
The 3 representatives of the countries acting as rapporteurs (“troika”) of the Philippines are the Marshall Islands, Namibia and Poland.
The Philippines reaffirmed the UPR procedure in the run-up to the review of the fourth cycle of the Philippines.
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