Philippines won’t follow US withdrawal from UN rights body

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is not following the United States in its move to withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC).

This was according to presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. who replied to a query on whether the US withdrawal from the UN HRC was vindication of President Duterte’s strong stance against the United Nations.

Roque said the President would rather not meddle in the decision of the US.

“The President is very careful never to comment on (a) sovereign decision, in the same way that he does not want other states commenting on domestic sovereign decisions. So we leave it at that. That’s the decision of the Americans, so be it,” Roque said.

Even if the Philippines is a part of the 47-member UN HRC, Roque said the government will not withdraw from the body.

“We are also in a UN Human Rights Council. We are not following suit if that’s the question. But the President has no reaction on what the Americans have decided to do,” he said.

Duterte has been criticized here and abroad over the extrajudicial killings that marred his administration’s anti-drug campaign. This also prompted him to withdraw the Philippines as signatory of the Rome Statue, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Philippines ratified the treaty in 2011. 

However, Roque said the US move bolstered earlier pronouncements by Duterte that there was bias among human rights groups.

“I guess the latest decision of the United States reflects a sentiment that the President himself has articulated and apparently we are not alone in this perception that there is bias amongst human rights groups,” he said.

The US withdrew from the UN human rights body in protest of its frequent criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. 

The US now joins Iran, North Korea and Eritrea as the only countries that refuse to participate in the council’s meetings and deliberations.

Reacting to the US decision, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein described it as “disappointing, if not really surprising.”

The US should be “stepping up, not stepping back,” given the state of human rights today, Zeid tweeted.

At the start of the Council’s 38th session on Monday – which is also Zeid’s last session before his mandate ends – he defended multilateralism and sounded out on the rise of what he described as “chauvinistic nationalism” as the greatest threat to the world.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he would have much preferred for the US to remain in the Human Rights Council. – Pia Lee-Brago