Asia-Pacific: Duterte’s drug war: Violating rights for a quick fix

Abstract

Strongman President Duterte of the Philippines was elected on populist campaign promises that included modernisation and a war on drugs. Thousands of drug suspects have been killed without legal process in a campaign of illegal police or vigilante human rights violations that look like state terror. It is a short-term attempt to deal with symptoms, not the causes, of illegal drug usage – such as poverty, inequality and exclusive growth.