Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-05-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to request reports from the UN and from human rights groups on the existence in the Philippines of death-squads and their use to murder alleged criminals and victims of mistaken identity.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We do not plan to make such a request at this time as we are already aware of reports by groups such as Human Rights Watch on instances of extra judicial killings. Our Embassy in Manila is in frequent contact with human rights groups and the UN in the Philippines on these and a range of other human rights issues. We also work closely with our EU partners to press for investigations into instances of abuse, and to encourage the protection of human rights defenders. The British Government’s view on the importance of the rule of law is clear, consistent and well known in the Philippines. Our Ambassador wrote an Op-Ed on this subject in the Philippine Star newspaper on 19 May 2016