Philippines Wins New Term on U.N. Rights Council, Drawing Outrage

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Alan Peter Cayetano, the Philippines’ foreign secretary, at the United Nations General Assembly last month. He accused critics of mounting “well-funded efforts” to block the country’s bid to win a seat on the rights council.CreditCreditChang W. Lee/The New York Times

By Jason Gutierrez

Oct. 13, 2018

MANILA — The Philippines has won another term on the United Nations Human Rights Council, a move condemned by international groups and officials as “unconscionable” but praised by Philippine officials as a “vindication” for a nation maligned around the world for President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal drug war.

The country won a three-year term on Friday at the United Nations General Assembly, becoming one of 18 member states to join the 47-seat council through 2021. The vote was 192 to 165, the Philippine foreign secretary, Alan Peter Cayetano, said.

Human Rights Watch accused the Philippine president of overseeing a “killing frenzy” and said the vote for the country to retain its seat on the council risked undermining the body’s credibility and effectiveness.

The Philippines has been “undergoing a human rights crisis” that could amount to crimes against humanity, said Louis Charbonneau, Human Rights Watch’s director at the United Nations.

“The killings continue daily and have spread to cities and provinces outside the capital, Manila,” Mr. Charbonneau said. “The Duterte administration has sought to quell dissent and criticism of the drug war by jailing, threatening and harassing critics.”

Mr. Cayetano characterized the vote as a new mandate that would allow the Philippines to prove to its detractors that the government valued human rights.

“We are really greatly honored as this is a vindication that fake news and baseless accusations have no place in modern-day human rights discussions,” Mr. Cayetano said in a statement on Saturday.

“We thank human rights advocates around the world but also condemn a few who are morally corrupt and who use human rights for political and financial gain,” he added. “To those who did not support us, we will continue to prove ourselves.”

The Philippines previously served on the council from 2007 to 2009, and from 2012 to 2014.

The country’s campaign to remain on the international body was fiercely opposed by rights groups such as Human Rights Watch, which is based in New York. It noted that Mr. Duterte had virtually given the police the all-clear to shoot and kill those suspected of drug dealing since becoming president two years ago.

Ahead of the General Assembly vote, Mr. Duterte admitted for the first time that his “only sin is the extrajudicial killings.”

The Philippine National Police recently said in its updated data on the drug war that an estimated 4,500 drug addicts and dealers have been killed.

But Human Rights Watch, as well as other rights groups, say that as many as 12,000 suspects have been killed, including those slain by vigilantes who leave signs on their victims warning others not to follow in their wake.

Mr. Cayetano accused critics of mounting “sustained and well-funded efforts” to block the Philippines’ bid.

“The numbers speak volumes of the confidence of the international community on the human rights record of the Duterte administration and its vision of keeping each and every Filipino safe and secure,” he said, accusing critics of “weaponizing” human rights for their own agenda.

“Our successful bid to keep our seat in the council is proof that many in the international community remain convinced the Philippines respects and protects human rights and have seen through the efforts of some to politicize and weaponize the issue,” he said.

Jacqueline Ann de Guia, a lawyer and spokeswoman for the Philippines’ independent Commission on Human Rights, said that earning a seat on the council put pressure on Manila to prove its critics wrong.

“The Philippines’ credibility to be part of this body rests on its ability to effect actions that will concretely address these allegations, in line with its mandate to promote, protect and fulfill and the human rights of all, and not just a select few,” Ms. de Guia said.

She noted that the number of extrajudicial killings linked to the government’s drug war continued to grow.

“Elevating states with records of gross human rights violations and abuses is a tremendous setback, Amnesty International USA’s advocacy director, Daniel Balson, said in reaction to the vote on Friday, according to The Associated Press. “It puts them on the world stage, and moreover, it empowers them to fundamentally undermine notions of human rights that are accepted internationally.”

And Nikki Haley, the departing United States ambassador to the United Nations, said that the “lack of standards continues to undermine the organization and demonstrates again why the United States was right to withdraw” from the body in June, according to The A.P.

Carlos Conde, a Philippine researcher for Human Rights Watch, said on Saturday that the country’s re-election to the rights commission was a “setback for accountability.”

“That makes it unconscionable, a move that will only enable the Duterte government to continue the abuses related to the drug war,” Mr. Conde said.

Apart from the Philippines, the other countries elected on Friday were Argentina, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Czech Republic, Denmark, Eritrea, Fiji, India, Italy, Somalia, Togo and Uruguay.

Jason Gutierrez, a reporter for The New York Times based in Manila, has in the past used his middle names, Felipe Villamor, as his byline for security reasons.