OpinionsEcon 101Primer on the UNHRC

Primer on the UNHRC

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The UN Human Rights Council (French: Conseil des droits de l’homme des Nations unies) has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis.

It is tasked to investigates allegations of breaches of human rights in UN member-states, and addresses important thematic human rights issues such as extrajudicial killings, freedom of association and assembly, freedom of expression, freedom of belief and religion, women’s rights,LGBT rights, and the rights of racial and ethnic minorities.

The headquarters of the UNHRC is in Geneva, Switzerland.

Recently, the UNHRC approved a Resolution, sponsored by Iceland, to launch an independent investigation into alleged crimes committed during the Philippine government’s war on drugs.

The Resolution was approved with a narrow margin yesterday, with 18 nations voting in its favor, 15 abstaining and 14 opposing.

The Resolution mandates a comprehensive written report into the human rights situation in the Philippines, with a focus on reports of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and enforced disappearances.

In reaction, President Duterte was left uttering his remarks that the reason Iceland, the main sponsor, filed the Resolution was because “they have nothing to eat in Iceland but ice.”

Foreign Affairs Sec. Teddy Boy Locsin rejected the Resolution, stating that there will be “far reaching consequences” for the governments that had voted for the Resolution.

Rights groups have claimed that tens of thousands have died in the Philippine government’s drug war.

The police has, meanwhile, said that the figure is just over 6,000 from the start of the Duterte administration in July 2016 until the end of May 2019.

Government has repeatedly denied involvement in the summary killings, saying that the drug suspects slain in police operations had resisted arrest.

The UNHRC draws its power from its member-nations coming together to wield political pressure and collective actions such as economic sanctions, withholding of aid funding, etc.

The country’s Human Rights Chairman Chito Gascon said the Commission has always pushed for transparency when it came to the numbers of possible human rights violations during the war on drugs.

Gascon said the issue should not be cause of any concern for the government as the country does give regular reports to the UN. “Human rights are a matter of national and international concern, and any effort that will help clear the air and bring clarity to the issue should be welcomed by the government, especially when it takes the position that it has nothing to hide.”

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