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There’s hugely positive news for a change today: Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Acting on an arrest warrant from the ICC, Philippine authorities arrested Duterte in Manila yesterday and put him on a plane to the Netherlands.
It is a historic step toward justice.
The ICC sought Duterte’s arrest on a charge of crimes against humanity in relation to alleged extrajudicial killings between 2011 and 2019. This covers both his years as mayor of Davao City and the brutal nationwide “war on drugs” after he became president in 2016.
The killings generally followed a pattern. National police officers or their agents would raid homes at night without warrants. They would arrest suspects and then execute them. They frequently planted evidence to justify their murders.
The scale of these killings was staggering. More than 6,000 Filipinos were killed in the “drug war” – that’s according to official police statistics. Human rights groups in the Philippines say the number is more than 30,000.
Most of the victims were impoverished people in urban areas. Many children were among those killed. Others were orphaned in drug raids.
Those seeking justice for these crimes have had little luck until now. Only a very small number of the thousands of cases have been investigated or prosecuted. Only four cases, all of low-ranking police officers, resulted in convictions for extrajudicial killings.
Yesterday’s arrest of former president Duterte and his departure for The Hague mark “a long-overdue victory” that could bring victims and their families a step closer to justice.
It’s also an encouraging moment for international justice generally. Lately, the ICC itself has been under attack by some governments, most recently by US President Donald Trump’s decision to sanction the court’s prosecutor.
The arrest of Duterte and his transfer to The Hague remind the world of the court’s relevance and its significance in ensuring accountability for grave crimes.
Of course, in the Philippines there is still much to be done. There have been recent extrajudicial killings and attacks against activists and civil society groups. Current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. needs to address continuing human rights violations in the country. The Philippines police need to be comprehensively reformed.
However, today let’s savor this moment and enjoy seeing justice take a step forward.
Such moments don’t come around often enough.
