Philippines

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte took office on June 30, 2016. Duterte, who as Davao City mayor had been linked to “death squads,” had campaigned on a platform that advocated violent measures, including killings of criminal suspects, to “solve drugs, criminality, and corruption in three to six months of taking office.” His campaign against illegal drugs prompted him to publicly praise extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers and drug users. The “war on drugs” he proclaimed has been followed by 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, have been a profound setback for human rights and the rule of law in the Philippines.