The report said:

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"Concerns about police impunity increased significantly as few administrative or criminal charges were filed against PNP (Philippine National Police) officers following the sharp increase in police killings.


"The most significant human rights problems were killings allegedly undertaken by vigilantes, security forces, and insurgents; cases of apparent governmental disregard for human rights and due process; and a weak and overburdened criminal justice system notable for slow court procedures, weak prosecutions and poor cooperation between police and investigators."

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The report is hardly different from the yearly State Department country reports on the Philippines — the only difference is that they are harsher today, under President Duterte, compared to the rights violations reports in the time of former Philippine presidents, where impunity reigned too.


What is highly questionable about all these rights groups' reports, whether they be from the State Department, or the UN or the Human Rights Watch is the fact that they do not appear to condemn and threaten other country leaders, including the US itself of being brought to the International Criminal Court (ICC).


The US government, no matter who sits in the White House, has been committing a lot of violations of human rights — whether it is in Gitmo, Afganistan, Iraq and other countries, such as Yemen and Syria when it tortures prisoners of war in its war on terrorism. Did not the US air strikes kill civilians, including children, too? Weren't prisoners jailed in Guantanamo tortured?


Yet when it comes to leaders of countries they do not see a friendly to the US, which the US wants deposed, the US State Department reports are harsh and condemning of the bombings and air strikes in Aleppo, Syria. All these are highlighted, because the US and the Western World want the Syrian leader ousted and replaced by their chosen rebel leader and his group, that are armed by America, to take over in a regime change.


A problem with the US with regard to other countries that do not toe the American and Western line, is that they appear to force their brand of democracy on say, Arab countries when clearly, such a democratic system hardly works for Arabs and Muslims in that part of the world, as they are mostly tribal in culture and nature.


When the US went all out in a war against Iraq under Saddam Hussein, whom it wanted replaced, the Middle East problem worsened and brought about world terrorism that has mutated from the al-Queda, to the ISIS, or Daesh. Eliminate these terrorist groups, but there will still be terrorism, which would be even worse than ISIS, which no longer has a land base but which has too many sleepers all over the world, ready to become suicide bombers.


The US and its Western allies also condemn Russia and Vladimir Putin for the ongoing war between Russian backed forces in Ukraine and have issued heavy sanctions on Russia, for its annexation of Crimea, despite an election where Crimeans opted to join the Russian Federation.


Yet for decades, Israel had done worse by occupying Palestinian land known as the occupied territories.


Have we heard of the United Nation, the US, the European Union, issuing harsh sanctions on Israel for "annexing" Palestinian territories? Of course not. The US even provides Israel with a lot of missiles and military material.


It is even worse now, as Israel, under Netanyahu has gone a step further by annexing more land to its already occupied territory, destroying the settlement area occupied by Palestinians and coming up with a new area it has annexed.


What Israel got was a weak slap on the wrist from the US and other European countries.


Neither did the US say anything when an Israeli soldier who killed a Palestinian merely got from the court, an 18-month jail term for murder. Was there a judgment and criticism if not denunciation of the Israeli court system, something that these western countries criticize court systems in other countries, especially the poorer countries?


This is not to say that countries should be spared of rights violations reports. But violations of human and even civil rights should equally be applied on other countries that commit such violations.


There appears to be a double standard when it comes down to condemnations of countries and threats to bring leaders to the ICC while sparing other leaders whom these western countries see as their friendly allies.



Sources: 

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<li>
No double standard please by Ninez Cacho-Olivares , March 6, 2017, <a href="https://goo.gl/GTzocL" target="_blank" class="news_link" title="Source">The Daily Tribune</a>
</li>
<li>
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016 by US State Department, <a href="https://goo.gl/iaaqDi" target="_blank" class="news_link" title="Source">https://www.state.gov</a>
</li>
</ol>


(This article is adapted from the source listed above. We are unable to grant permission for any kind of reproduction other than social media shares.)

America's double standard in human and civil rights voilation condemnations