CHR: PH withdrawal from ICC won’t stop proceedings vs Duterte

FILE: Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Chito Gascon (Photo by Albert Calvelo via Senate of the Philippines/Facebook)

The preliminary examination of the alleged violations linked to the administration’s war on drugs will not be halted even after President Rodrigo Duterte decided to withdraw the Philippines from the International Criminal Court (ICC), Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said on Wednesday.

Despite the President’s intention, CHR chairman Chito Gascon said that the Philippine government should continue to work with ICC on its ongoing preliminary examination.

“The government must show good faith by fully cooperating with ICC processes including the current preliminary examination which cannot be terminated by this withdrawal,” Gascon said in a statement.

“The government is grossly mistaken in believing that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over events in this country. What it must do is to show that it is willing and able to bring all perpetrators of human rights violations to justice,” he added.

On March 14, Duterte announced his decision to pull the country out of the ICC “effective immediately.”

“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,” Duterte said in a statement released to the media.

This remark came over a month after the ICC started its preliminary examination of the complaint filed against the Philippine President in relation with the high number of deaths under his controversial anti-illegal drugs campaign.

Gascon said that this decision to “immediately” withdraw the Philippines from the Rome Statute was a “significant setback” for the entire nation.

“The decision to withdraw from the ICC is an unfortunate move that constitutes a significant setback to the decades-long global effort of universal jurisdiction to ensure accountability for the most serious violations of human rights law,” he noted.

“The Philippines has historically been at the forefront of advancing international justice and this move constitutes a reversal that will be viewed as encouraging impunity to continue,” he added.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) also explained that Duterte may still face prosecution from the ICC for crimes committed in the country while it was still a state member.

“The Philippines’ intention to walk away from the ICC is unfortunate, but it doesn’t shut the door on the prosecutor’s scrutiny of the government’s horrendous track record of grave abuses,” HRW stressed.

“Those responsible for ICC crimes committed in the Philippines while the country is still a member could find themselves facing justice in The Hague,” it added, referring to the ICC’s headquarters in the Netherlands.

In 1998, the United Nations (UN) created the Rome Statue which established the ICC. According to the treaty, the ICC is a permanent institution that shall have the power to exercise its jurisdiction over persons for the most serious crimes of international concern.

The serious crimes were specified to genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crime of aggression.

Duterte, howover, insisted that the ICC has no jurisdiction over him due to “complementarity principle” where the ICC can only act if the local courts are unable to or unwilling to act on a certain case.