A human rights group urged the United Nations on Thursday to take the Philippines to task for failing to prosecute soldiers suspected of involvement in a string of extrajudicial killings. New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Philippines has done little to implement recommendations made last year by Philip Alston, the UN special envoy on extrajudicial killings, as well as the government's own fact-finding commission. Both have linked soldiers to hundreds of deaths and disappearances of mostly left-wing activists belonging to political organizations that the military brands as fronts for communist rebels. “The list of actions touted by the Philippine government as progress unfortunately seems little more than ‘window-dressing,'” said Elaine Pearson, Human Rights Watch's deputy director for Asia. She told reporters that the actions seemed “designed to merely deflect ... criticism.” The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council will hold its first Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines' human rights record April 11, during which council members can question government representatives in a public session. All governments are subjects to the review. “This is something we take seriously,” Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye told reporters. “I am sure the government will make the appropriate explanation to the international community.” He said the Presidential Human Rights Commission was prepared to meet with the UN council to address the issue. Pearson said the Philippines has reported to the council that the number of killings dropped significantly in 2007. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo told foreign diplomats in January that seven activists and journalists were killed last year, compared to 41 in 2006. In the killings since Arroyo came to office in 2001, “not a single military official has been convicted,” Pearson said. __
