[According to the Rome Statute, a state party’s withdrawal takes effect one year after the United Nations secretary general receives written notification. The statement argued that the rule does not apply because “there appears to be fraud in entering such agreement.”]
By
Emily Rauhala
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Philippine
President Rodrigo Duterte addresses the troops in Manila on
Dec.
20, 2017. (Bullit Marquez/AP)
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BEIJING — President Rodrigo Duterte will
withdraw the Philippines from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the
International Criminal Court (ICC), according to a statement released to
reporters in Manila on Wednesday.
The move comes about a month after the ICC
opened a preliminary examination into thousands of deaths linked to his violent
campaign against suspected drug users and dealers.
A preliminary examination is used to
determine if there is a “reasonable basis” to proceed with an investigation —
in this case into charges of crimes against humanity.
Duterte’s statement said the decision to
withdraw was because of “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks” by
U.N. officials and an attempt by the ICC prosecutor to seek jurisdiction “in
violation of due process and presumption of innocence.”
“I therefore declare and forthwith give
notice, as President of the Republic of the Philippines, that the Philippines
is withdrawing its ratification of the Rome Statute effective immediately,” it
read.
According to the Rome Statute, a state
party’s withdrawal takes effect one year after the United Nations secretary
general receives written notification. The statement argued that the rule does
not apply because “there appears to be fraud in entering such agreement.”
A number of African countries have also
announced their intention to quit the ICC, including South Africa, claiming the
court is biased against Africans. The African Union passed a nonbinding
resolution pushed by Kenya in 2017 urging members to withdraw.
The question of whether the ICC could or
would investigate Duterte has been swirling since the early months of his
presidency.
Since he was elected in 2016, an estimated
12,000 Filipinos have been killed, either shot dead in police operations with
high death tolls and few witnesses or assassinated by men on motorbikes, often
after being named by police.
Four months into the campaign, when the death
toll stood at several thousand, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she was
“deeply concerned about these alleged killings and the fact that public
statements of high officials of the Republic of the Philippines seem to condone
such killings.”
Duterte responded by taunting the court and
the killings continued.
A year ago when a Philippine lawyer delivered
a complaint to the ICC accusing the president and 11 associates of crimes
against humanity, Duterte shrugged off the move.
The Philippines signed the Rome Statute in
2011, which means the court has jurisdiction for crimes within its mandate
committed there. However, the court can only act if it is clear that local
authorities have failed to investigate and prosecute crimes — and this will be
the sticking point.
Duterte’s fast-talking spokesman, Harry
Roque, has argued that local authorities can and will investigate crimes, so
there is no need — or place — for the ICC to get involved.
The Philippines will “bring to bear our
national criminal justice system upon those who violate our laws,” he told a
gathering of ICC signatories last December.
But Duterte’s government has not made public
any evidence of efforts to prosecute those implicated in drug war deaths.
Instead, the president has repeatedly promised to pardon, even promote, police
linked to drug war killings.
Roque’s “assertion that the Philippine
government has been willing and able to investigate those deaths has simply not
been true,” wrote Param-Preet Singh, associate director of Human Rights Watch’s
International Justice Program, in a statement published Dec. 7, 2017.
“The government’s claims of its preparedness
to prosecute offenders is grotesquely deceptive.”
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