Drug-related killings in the Philippines continue despite the government’s claim that it has shifted focus of its anti-narcotics “war” to rehabilitation, said a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
In its World Report 2023, which was launched on Thursday, January 12, HRW said the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has not ended the government’s “war on drugs.”
“President Marcos keeps telling foreign leaders that he’s ready to improve the human rights situation in the Philippines, but this is not going to happen so long as the police kill suspected drug users with impunity,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“Marcos has a golden opportunity to prove that he is serious about human rights by ordering the end of the ‘drug war,’” said Robertson during the online launch of the report from Jakarta
In public statements and in meetings with foreign leaders, Marcos has said he would continue the “war against drugs” policy that he inherited from his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, but would shift the focus to rehabilitating drug users.
HRW, however, noted that “the killings of alleged drug dealers and users continue, and needed reforms have not been made to existing drug rehabilitation programs.”
Rights groups and advocates of drug policy reform have criticized the existing programs as coercive and punitive, and said that they stigmatize drug users.
Since 2016, the Philippine police have admitted their involvement in the deaths of more than 6,200 people in drug raids across the country.
In a 2020 report, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reported 8,663 deaths have occurred in the “drug war.”
The Human Rights Commission of the Philippines and domestic human rights groups report death tolls that are two to three times higher than the UN figure.
The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in May 2021 filed a request to open an investigation into whether crimes against humanity have been committed during the Philippine antidrug campaign.
In the 712-page World Report 2023, its 33rd edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in close to 100 countries.
