Charles Tannock, author. – Mr President, just over a year since our last resolution on the Philippines, the situation is, sadly, little changed. The self-styled strongman, President Duterte, continues to pursue his war on drugs – a campaign that is so far estimated to have cost the lives of over 12 000 people, many of them youngsters.

Away from his headline-grabbing story, minorities including indigenous peoples continue to be marginalised and victims of human rights abuses. The news that the Philippines gave notice last month of withdrawal from the Rome Statute and the International Criminal Court is also of grave concern, and forms part of a wider pattern of authoritarian leaders across the globe quitting the International Criminal Court as an act of defiance against the international rules-based order.

President Duterte’s comments urging other countries to do the same are particularly unwelcome. The intention to reintroduce the death penalty in the Philippines for drug offenses also raises grave concerns for the future direction of that country and illustrates that Duterte’s claims that he will continue in the same vein until his presidential term ends in 2022 are not empty threats.

All taken together, the trajectory of human rights in the Philippines under President Duterte appears to be heading in only one direction, and that is not a very nice one.