{"id":156679,"date":"2018-03-15T04:02:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T08:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=156679"},"modified":"2018-03-15T04:02:18","modified_gmt":"2018-03-15T08:02:18","slug":"chr-ph-withdrawal-from-icc-wont-stop-proceedings-vs-duterte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/03\/15\/chr-ph-withdrawal-from-icc-wont-stop-proceedings-vs-duterte\/","title":{"rendered":"CHR: PH withdrawal from ICC won\u2019t stop proceedings vs Duterte"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Commission<\/a>
FILE: Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Chito Gascon (Photo<\/a> by Albert Calvelo via Senate of the Philippines\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The preliminary examination of the alleged violations linked to the administration\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Despite the President\u2019s intention, CHR chairman Chito Gascon said that the Philippine government should continue to work with ICC on its ongoing preliminary examination.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

On March 14, Duterte announced his decision to pull the country out of the ICC \u201ceffective immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI, 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,\u201d Duterte said in a statement released to the media.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Gascon said that this decision to \u201cimmediately\u201d withdraw the Philippines from the Rome Statute was a \u201csignificant setback\u201d for the entire nation.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“The Philippines\u2019 intention to walk away from the ICC is unfortunate, but it doesn\u2019t shut the door on the prosecutor\u2019s scrutiny of the government\u2019s horrendous track record of grave abuses,\u201d HRW stressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose 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\u2019s headquarters in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The serious crimes were specified to genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crime of aggression.<\/p>\n

Duterte, howover, insisted that the ICC has no jurisdiction over him due to \u201ccomplementarity principle\u201d where the ICC can only act if the local courts are unable to or unwilling to act on a certain case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The preliminary examination of the alleged violations linked to the administration\u2019s war on drugs will not be halted even after …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":117943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[10856,12477,343,13135,48315,48314],"class_list":["post-156679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-commission-on-human-rights","tag-international-criminal-court","tag-philippines","tag-president-rodrigo-duterte","tag-state-member","tag-withdrawal","mauthors-joanna-belle-deala","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}