(Eagle News) — Foreign Affairs secretary Alan Peter Cayetano told the 37th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday, February 27, that the Philippines was ready to have its human rights records scrutinized.
But Cayetano also called on the UN council to also hear the side of the Philippine government and to not just listen to “critics who have politicized and even weaponized the issue.”
He also appealed to the Council to send a more objective UN Special Rapporteur, and not send Agnes Callamard who — according to the Department of Foreign Affairs chief — had already prejudged the Philippine government.
“We have been called upon to cooperate with the mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, we have always cooperated, and today reaffirm our readiness to cooperate,” Cayetano said in his remarks during the High Level Segment of the 37th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
“When does the quest for human rights become a human wrong? It is when human rights is politicized and weaponized,” Cayetano said in his remarks that were well-received by those in the council chamber, particularly from representatives of ASEAN member-states.
The DFA secretary said that the Philippines feels that a “constructive engagement in a multilateral context is badly needed in our world today.”
“We need to engage and act and not merely name and shame,” Cayetano told the 47-member body.
“As a sovereign nation, we deserve respect and even support for our right to life and liberty, our sovereign right to self-determination, to make our people safe and secure from all threats, terrorism, corruption and criminality,” he pointed out.
Cayetano also echoed the statement of United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guttierez who urged council members on Monday to “speak up for human rights in an impartial way without double standards… and not allow (it) to be instrumentalized as a political tool.”
Before this, Icelandic Foreign Affairs Minister Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson said that while they welcome reports that the Philippine government has expressed its willingness to cooperate with the UN, he is urging the Philippine government to “accept without preconditions or limitations” a visit from Special Rapporteur Callamard.
He also advised the Philippines to “cooperate with the Office of the High Commissioner to receive a mission by independent experts to conduct am assessment of the situation in the country without delay.”
But the DFA pointed out that the UN special rapporteurs are also required to strictly observe the special procedures code of conduct and methods of work and avoid politicizing the issue.
He said Callamard failed in this regard as she had already prejudged the issue.
“When a UN Special Rapporteur cries out, like the Queen in Alice in Wonderland, ‘First the judgment, then the trial’, when she culls evidence only for what might support her prejudgment, he or she loses the moral high ground and is stripped of any credibility,” Cayetano told UN council members.
He then explained the campaign against illegal drugs that President Rodrigo Duterte had launched.
Cayetano told the council members about the illegal drug situation in the country and said that the Philippine government’s intensified drug war was meant “to save lives, to preserve families, to protect communities and stop the country from sliding into a narco state.”
“As a sovereign nation, we deserve respect and even support for our right to life and liberty, our sovereign right to self-determination, to make our people safe and secure from all threats, terrorism, corruption and criminality,” he pointed out.
The DFA chief called for ‘fairness” as he noted that Callamard had already “prejudged” the Philippine situation.
He appealed to the UN Human Rights Council to “send anyone except for one who has already prejudged us” apparently referring to Callamard.
“All we ask for is fairness. There are 7.5 billion people in the world; send anyone except one who has already prejudged us, and who, by any measure, cannot be considered independent and More so, objective,” Cayetano said.
“How will the honorable members of this Council convince countries to work with it if there is a perception of prejudice and prejudgment?” he asked, adding that other member-states have likewise expressed their concerns about the conduct of certain mandate holders.
The DFA release also pointed out that certain non-government organizations critical of the Philippine government had also “politicized the issue by waging a campaign of misinformation against the Philippines.”
“We will not allow these NGOs to portray an unfair and unjust image of our country nor will we let them question the strength of our democracy,” Cayetano said.
“Some of them have politicized and weaponized the issue for their own gain, putting their political and economic advocacies ahead of genuine human rights advocacies,” he said. (With a DFA release)