The Current State of Human Rights in the Philippines Under President Duterte

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte campaigned on a promise that advocated violent measures, including killings of criminal suspects, to “solve drugs, criminality, and corruption in three to six months of taking office.” Since taking office in June 2016, Duterte’s “war on drugs” includes the killing of thousands of people by police who claim to be acting in self-defense and unidentified gunmen. The killings, [for which few details are known and no efforts are made at accountability carried out by police and others operating with state protection, have been a profound setback for human rights and the rule of law in the Philippines. Join us for an analysis of the current state of human rights in the Philippines with Brad Adams, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division and Professor Diane Desierto, international law expert and Stanford Fellow at the Handa Center and Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences.

Brad Adams, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division since 2002, oversees the organization’s work on human rights issues in twenty countries, from Afghanistan to the Pacific. At Human Rights Watch, he has worked on a wide range of issues including freedom of expression, protection of civil society and human rights defenders, counterterrorism, refugees, gender and religious discrimination, armed conflict, and impunity. He has written for publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, Foreign Affairs, and Wall Street Journal.

Prof. Dr. Diane Desierto is currently the External Executive Director, University of the Philippines College of Law Graduate School. She is also a Stanford Fellow at both the WSD Handa Center and the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences (CASBS). Prof. Desierto’s specialty in international law includes dispute resolution, human rights and humanitarian law, ASEAN law, and appellate litigation.