No country has a perfect record in the protection of human rights, Malacañang declared Wednesday after the government's war on drugs drew criticisms from the United Nations human rights chief.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque stressed this as he assured the UN that the government is committed to probe allegations of rights violations in the drug war.
Even the United States, Australia, and countries from Europe face human rights concerns, Roque said.
“No country can claim a perfect record as far as human rights is concerned,” Roque said over CNN Philippines Wednesday.
“Again, benchmark should be the United States. I’ m sure the Special Rapporteur is on equality, have equally bad things to say about the United States. The Rapporteurs on the rights of refugees have equally bad things to say about Australia and don’t even mention countries like Israel, ‘no. And of course Europe now faces challenges as far as refugees coming from Africa are concerned,” he added.
In assuring the UN, Roque mentioned the creation of an inter-agency panel to conduct the investigation into the alleged drug-related killings.
“It’s not a perfect world for human rights. What is important is where there are atrocities or acclaimed violations of human rights that the burden of the state to investigate and punish the perpetrators thereof, are in fact complied with,” he said.
“In an effort to improve our capacity to investigate and punish the perpetrators of human rights violators, we have created an inter-agency body headed by the DOJ (Department of Justice),” he added.
He said the new government panel would “look into each and every case of alleged killing” in the drug war. “The inter-agency response is necessary to assure the country and the international community, of the impartiality of the investigation of these deaths arising from police operations,” he said.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet recently disclosed the alleged “serious human rights violations including extrajudicial killings” in the Philippine governments' war on drugs.
Bachelet, in a report to the Human Rights Council on Tuesday, claimed that the anti-drug campaign was carried out without due regard for the rule of law, due process, and the human rights of people. The drug-related killings have been “widespread and systematic,” she added.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, in a statement to the UN human rights council, said the new government panel will conduct a review of the 5,655 anti-drug operations where deaths happened.