UN body extends term of drug war critic

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UN body extends term of drug war critic

30 June 2017

By Jil Danielle M. Caro

During its 35th session held from June 6 to 23, 2017, the UN body in its resolution 26/12 said that it decided to extend the mandate of Ms. Callamard, a known critic of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s war on drugs that has led to the deaths of more than 6,000 persons.

As special rapporteur, Ms. Callamard is mandated to “continue to examine situations of extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions in all circumstances” and “to submit the findings on an annual basis, together with conclusions and recommendations,” as cited in UNHCR’s report.

Last month, Ms. Callamard visited the country for “academic” purposes. Speaking before a drug policy forum at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Ms. Callamard said that the global problem on narcotics requires effective approaches, scoring Mr. Duterte’s bloody drug war. “Let me be clear. In none of the countries where the perverse consequences of ill thought drug policies were reported, in none of these countries did the drug problem disappear. In fact, the opposite happened,” Ms. Callamard said during the Drug Issues, Different Perspectives: A Policy Forum last May 5.

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