MANILA - Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the government was rejecting the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution seeking an investigation into the human rights situation in the Philippines.
In a speech read on his behalf during the UNHRC's 41st regular session in Geneva, Switzerland, Locsin questioned the validity of the resolution.
"This resolution was not universally adopted. Therefore, its validity is highly questionable. It does not represent the will of the Council, much less that of the developing countries who are always the target of such resolutions," he said.
"Western countries pushed for this resolution in the confidence that the world has forgotten what they did and what should have been done to them had there been a Human Rights Council. It was pushed with the arrogance that developing countries must not stand up to them even if we can and as we hereby do. There will be consequences," Locsin added.
Locsin said the Philippines was rejecting the resolution, which he said is being used to threaten states with "tough approach to crushing crime."
"The Philippines rejects this resolution. It cannot, in good conscience, abide by it. We will not accept a politically partisan and one- sided resolution, so detached from the truth on the ground. It comes straight from the mouth of the Queen in Alice in Wonderland, “First the judgment, then the proof," Locsin added.
United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Thursday adopted a resolution seeking an investigation into the human rights situation in the Philippines, including alleged extrajudicial killings in government's drug war.
During its 41st regular session in Geneva, Switzerland, the rights body voted to adopt the resolution filed by Iceland, among 18 countries that voted yes, including Peru and Uruguay.
A total of 14 countries, meanwhile, voted no, including China, with which the Philippines has been pursuing enhanced ties despite unresolved disputes in the South China Sea.
For Locsin, the adoption of the resolution was not a victory for human rights but "a travesty travesty of them that should honor the character of the author and co-sponsors of the resolution."
"It is an example of how these countries – they who are least entitled to make such accusations, incited by false information from sources peddling their untruths for money, or who have allowed themselves to be played by the ill will of a few – have undermined the Human Rights Council to advance their agenda and target a government that’s hostile to the very things they have done and continue to do, and about which there is overwhelming proof," he said.
He also said the resolution goes against everything the Philippines worked for as one of the founding members of the Human Rights Council.
"Do not presume to threaten states with accountability for a tough approach to crushing crime, at which some of your countries are complicit at worst and tolerant at best. You don’t have the wherewithal, so all you can do is insult. The United Nations is a collection of sovereignties and not a sovereign collective," he added.
UNHRC, Teodoro Locsin Jr., DFA, UN Human Rights Council, war on drugs, human rights violations