Democracy can never justify murder

I was stunned by your editorial saying that, because Philippines President Duterte was democratically elected (with less than 40 per cent of the vote), the UN should not condemn the atrocities he is committing in his insane drug war. Hitler had a popular mandate too! Although democracy is an important component of human rights, it does not give anyone a licence to trample on other rights, such as the right to not be killed by the state extra-judicially. 

If the majority of Germans had supported the extermination of millions of Jews, would your editors have written that the rest of the world should mind its own business and not pass moral judgement?

Eric Bahrt