Agnes Callamard, UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, arrives at forum on drug-related ssues pic.twitter.com/zayWjuFCZ0 — Christian Esguerra (@IanEsguerra) May 5, 2017

MANILA – A war on drugs approach will not work and will only compound the problem, a United Nations investigator who has repeatedly criticized President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-narcotics drive said Friday.

A joint commitment forged by world leaders at the UN before Duterte assumed office last year called for a “rights-based” and “comprehensive” approach to the drug problem, said Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial summary or arbitrary executions Agnes Callamard.

“In April 2016, the general assembly of the world’s governments recognized explicitly that the war on drugs, be it community-based, national or global, the war on drugs does not work,” Callamard told a forum organized by the Free Legal Assistant Group.

“Badly thought out, ill-conceived drug policies not only fail to address substantively the problem, they add more problems,” she said.

Callamard cited extrajudicial and gang-related killings, “breakdown” of the rule of law, vigilante crimes, torture, ill treatment of prisoners, sexual violence, prolonged detention, detention in rehabilitation centers without trial and non-consensual experimental treatment.

“Further, badly thought out, ill-conceived policies, foster a regime of impunity, infecting the world justice sector, invigorating the rule of violence rather than the rule of law, eroding public trust in public institutions, breeding fear and leading people to despair,” she said.

The government had invited Callamard to the Philippines, but only if she agrees to terms set by Duterte, who had dared her to name her sources on alleged extra-judicial killings.

The UN representative was in Manila on Friday specifically for the FLAG forum, where she was jokingly introduced as a “non-BFF” of the Philippines.

Callamard rued a growing disregard for human rights around the world, saying, “We are in the midst of a disruption in norms and values.”

She said it was “profoundly disturbing” that alleged rights abuses “are occurring at the hands of authorities that should and can know better.”

Disregard for human rights “pushes open the door to an abyss, a void to which humanity has thrown itself before with awful consequences,” she said.

“Of course, one cannot deny the humanity of some people without losing humanity for all people,” she said.