The United Nations human rights chief on Friday said that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has launched profanity-laded diatribes against U.N. rapporteurs, needs “psychiatric evaluation.”
Listing some of Manila’s actions against U.N. envoys, including reportedly filing terrorism charges against one, rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said: “it makes one believe that the president of the Philippines needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation.”
Zeid and other U.N. rights officials have focused significant attention on Duterte’s controversial drug war. Police have killed more than 4,100 drug suspects, but rights groups allege more than 8,000 others have been murdered in what they describe as crimes against humanity.
The U.N. special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, Agnes Callamard, has become a particular Duterte target over her criticism of his campaign to stamp out illegal drugs.
In an exchange with Manila’s envoys in the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday, Zeid referred to November media reports from the Philippines that quoted Duterte threatening to slap Callamard, while using profanity.
“This is absolutely disgraceful that the president of a country could speak in this way, using the foulest of language against a rapporteur that is highly respected,” Zeid told reporters on Friday.
