As early as 2017, Sen. Leila M. de Lima has been urging the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to urgently dispatch to the Philippines a team that will conduct an independent fact-finding investigation into the rampant killings and other human rights violations in the country under the Duterte administration's war on drugs. She has reiterated this call in her letters to UNHRC member-states, the latest being sent on 13 June 2019.