Philippines: ICC authorizes investigation into drug war

Published on : 09/15/2021 – 19:04

An investigation is about to be opened. The judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on Wednesday (September 15th) that they had authorized the opening of an investigation into the murders committed in the Philippines as part of the government’s drug war, constituting possible “crimes against humanity”.

The Court, founded in 2002 to try the worst atrocities committed in the world, “granted the prosecutor’s request to open an investigation”, despite Manila’s withdrawal from the ICC in 2019 following the opening of a preliminary examination on this violence.

Fatou Bensouda, outgoing ICC prosecutor, announced in June that she had called for an investigation into thousands of murders allegedly committed in the Philippines as part of the government’s declared war on drugs between 2011 and 2019.

Possible crimes against humanity

The international judges concluded that “there is a reasonable basis to open an investigation”, noting that “the specific element of murder as a crime against humanity (…) is fulfilled,” the court said. in a press release.

The ICC has clarified that the “so-called ‘war on drugs’ campaign cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation, and the killings cannot be seen as legitimate or just excess.”

The judges stressed that even though the Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2019, the jurisdiction remains competent to hear crimes allegedly committed on their territory when they were a state party to the Rome Statute, the founding text of the Court. .

With AFP