[President Rodrigo Duterte at a meeting with members of his pandemic task force on December 6, 2021. (Photo from Presidential Communications Facebook page)]

MANILA: A coalition of rights groups launched Tuesday a campaign to urge foreign governments to impose sanctions on President Rodrigo Duterte and other Philippine officials for allegedly violating human rights. The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines said in a statement that it will be working with the national governments of Australia, Canada, the US, the UK, and the European Union for the imposition of Magnitsky sanctions on Philippines officials, PhilStar reported.

“In the absence so far of genuine accountability for these crimes through international mechanisms, such as the International Criminal Court and the UN Human Rights Council, ICHRP is launching a global campaign under national Magnitsky Acts to hold those responsible accountable for these widely documented crimes,” it said. Countries that have Magnitsky laws may impose punishment, ranging from travel bans to financial sanctions, on foreign nationals responsible for human rights violations or corruption in a foreign country. The US was the first to enact a Magnitsky law in 2012, three years after Sergei Magnitsky, a tax advisor who exposed corruption among Russian government officials, died while in prison.

Aside from Duterte, the coalition is calling for sanctions on Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, both of whom ICHRP described as “architects of the war on drugs and campaign of state terror.”