Seek points of compromise, not shame one another
DIPLOMACY as an honorable profession involves the skillful use of language to avert discord and even conflict between nations. Diplomats, thus, shame themselves and the countries or organizations they represent when they resort to incendiary remarks against a sovereign state.
High Commissioner of the United Nations Human Rights Commission Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein sounded retaliatory when he let off his own brand of vitriol during a news conference in Geneva on Friday by saying Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte needed his head checked.
“It makes one believe that the President of the Philippines needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation,” the UNHCR chief said.
Zeid, a Jordanian prince and foreign- educated career diplomat, was criticizing Duterte for his actions, which include his style of fighting illegal drugs in the Philippines and his government’s filing of terrorism charges against a Filipina rapporteur for indigenous peoples, Victoria TauliCorpuz, over her supposed communist links.
The UNHCR envoys, particularly rapporteur Agnes Callamard, have been openly critical of Duterte’s anti- drug campaign, and Duterte does not hide his disdain for the envoys’ meddling in the country’s internal affairs.
“These attacks cannot go unanswered, the UN Human Rights Council must take a position,” Zeid said, after Duterte’s government sought to get a UN investigator, a former Philippine lawmaker and four former Catholic priests declared as “terrorists.”
Zeid may have reason to hit back at Duterte and his government, but all that went down the drain when he gratuitously insulted a head of state.
Unfortunately, when the insult was hurled at Duterte, the Filipino people also felt their name maligned.
Zeid should remember that Duterte was elected to power, and continues to be supported by millions of Filipinos who gave the former city mayor a mandate to quell crime and corruption throughout the country, as well as undertake serious political and economic reforms.
Instead of engaging the head of state in a word war, the prince should refrain from meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. For someone who is not elected by his people to be a prince, he should mind his own business.
Among Zeid’s roles are to “promote universal enjoyment of all human rights by giving practical effect to the will and resolve of the world community as expressed by the United Nations,” as well as “play the leading role on human rights issues and emphasize the importance of human rights at the international and national levels.”
He is also supposed to “provide education, information advisory services and technical assistance in the field of human rights,” and “promote international cooperation for human rights.”
Zeid was missing his mission by engaging a very popular national leader in an unproductive word war that makes only for attention- grabbing headlines.
By insulting Duterte and the Filipinos, Zeid risks shutting down what could have been a meaningful dialogue and cooperation between UN agencies and the Duterte government on the country’s human rights situation.
Instead of engaging the head of state in a word war, the prince should refrain from meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.