On March 17th 2018, the Philippines officially left the International Criminal Court (hereafter ICC). Before finding out why this is so controversial, we should ask what is the ICC and what does it do? The ICC, an intergovernmental organization, has the right to impose criminal penalties on individuals who committed any kinds of crimes related to genocide, war crimes or crimes which against humanity. It is particularly significant in that it has jurisdiction * over the cases which involve crimes of humanity. It is the world’s only tribunal** that handles war crimes and it also has the right to engage in criminal trials when justice is not achieved or such legal systems fail in a country.
While leaving the ICC does not seem like a good idea, why did the Philippines withdraw from the ICC? Rodrigo Duterte, the President of the Philippines is best known for the Drug War he declared. Being called a “ruthless violator of human rights”, he promised to carry out an intensive crackdown on drugs since he took office in 2016. The strong drug raids and the punishment on the criminals in the country have always been an issue all around the world. Officially, over five thousand people who committed drug-related crimes have been executed in the name of punishment so far. However, Civil Rights groups say that the number of “victims” of extrajudicial killings is estimated to be more than ten thousand. Regarding this problem, in February 2018, the ICC undertook the preliminary inquiry of which Duterte never cooperated with saying the ICC has no jurisdictions over him. In March the same year, the government announced its decision to withdraw from the ICC and is now no longer a member of the treaty.
Some criticize that the decision is only to avoid international scrutiny and it will lead to more serious humanity problems. However, Duterte has highlighted that the withdrawal has nothing to do with genocide nor war crimes. Critics also say that even though the Philippines has officially left the court, the ICC still has the jurisdictions over the alleged crimes committed during the period when the Philippines was still a signed member of the treaty. Despite the international pressure, last March, Duterte publicly released a list of people that he claims are involved in drugs. Most of people named in the list are governmental officials, which includes 46 officials and 33 mayors and many of those mentioned in the list are political opponents of the President. Since he released the list just two months ahead of elections planning to be held in May and especially judging from the fact he has never explained the way he concluded the names on the list, there are suspicions that he released the list for the political purpose. But again, he stressed that he does not have any political intentions and that he is committed to root out drug-related crimes.
Clearly, the Drug War he proclaimed seems extreme in that he never explained the process of how he originally made the list and the executions that are being carried out without most getting fair trial. Even so, Duterte’s popularity hit its highest numbers during the first quarter of 2019, according to Social Weather Stations. Apparently, the action he has taken debatable internationally, some argue that we cannot let him violate human rights while others say that they cannot argue what is right or wrong since, judging from his high popularity, it is the people in his country who decide their own laws, after all.
* jurisdiction: the official power to make legal decisions and judgments
** tribunal: a court of justice
Cho Aruem aruemcho@gmail.com
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