Duterte Suspends Loan Talks With States Supporting UN Resolution On Rights In Philippines

The administration of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte issued a decree on Saturday ordering government agencies to suspend talks on loans with the states that supported the UN Human Rights Council resolution on the human rights situation in the Philippines

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2019) The administration of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte issued a decree on Saturday ordering government agencies to suspend talks on loans with the states that supported the UN Human Rights Council resolution on the human rights situation in the Philippines.

In July, the UN Human Rights Council endorsed an Iceland-sponsored resolution, which demanded a report on the human rights situation in the Philippines. Manila strongly rejected the resolution.

"In light of the Administration's strong rejection of the Resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which was carried through by the votes of a minority of the Council members on 11 July 2019 and calls upon the Philippines to take certain actions in relation to alleged human rights violations in the country all concerned officials are DIRECTED to suspend negotiations for and signing of all loan and grant agreements with the governments of the countries that co-sponsored and/or voted in favor of the aforesaid resolution, pending the assessment of our relations with these countries," the document read as quoted by the Rappler media outlet.

The Duterte administration has been under international scrutiny over what is believed to be thousands of extrajudicial killings in the name of a three-year "war on drugs," in which dissenting voices have increasingly been silenced.