Rodrigo Duterte needs a psychiatric assessment: UN

GENEVA: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein stated that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte needed a psychiatric evaluation after his government included a UN official in a list of 600 people they want labelled as terrorists.

According to The Independent, Philippine national Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a UN special rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, was mentioned in a list of alleged communist guerillas that was recently submitted to a Manila court.

“He needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric examination. This kind of comment is unacceptable. These attacks cannot go unanswered; the UN human rights council must take a position,” said Zeid.

Ms Tauli-Corpuz, who has been in the post since 2014, was accused of terrorism and alleged membership of the New People's Army and the Communist Party of the Philippines, which were recently branded as terrorist organisations by Duterte’s government. She, in turn, called these allegations “baseless, malicious and, irresponsible”.

After joining the office in 2016, Duterte tried to find a solution to a long-standing conflict with the communists, even putting leftist politicians in his cabinet. But since peace talks failed, he started a campaign against the groups, recently claiming that the rebels were trying to overthrow the government using acts of terror.