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15 Mar 2017 - NPWJ News Digest on International Criminal Justice
Articles
Philippine VP blasts Duterte's drug crackdown, cites abuses
by abc News, 15 Mar 2017
The Philippine vice president is raising alarms about the president's bloody crackdown on illegal drug use, which she says can't be solved "with bullets alone," adding that Filipinos should "defy brazen incursions on their rights." Vice President Leni Robredo's videotaped comments, which were issued to the media Wednesday, are some of her sharpest critiques so far of President Rodrigo Duterte's campaign and are likely to antagonize him because they are intended for a meeting of international human rights advocates, whom he has often lambasted. Philippine presidents and vice presidents are elected separately and often come from rival political parties. Robredo, who belongs to the opposition Liberal Party, resigned from a Cabinet post in December, citing "major differences in principles and values" with the brash-talking leader. In her speech to be shown Thursday at a U.N.-linked forum on extrajudicial killings in Vienna, Austria, she raised concerns about the mounting number of killings of mostly poor drug suspects she described as "summary executions," and about a lack of transparency and accountability in Duterte's crackdown. "We are now looking at some very grim statistics. Since July last year, more than 7,000 people have been killed in summary executions," Robredo said in the video. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said Robredo can speak freely on public issues but should avoid unfounded allegations. Duterte and his national police chief have said they do not condone extrajudicial killings, but have repeatedly threatened drug suspects with death in public speeches.
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South Africa: DA Welcomes Withdrawal of the Rome Statute Repeal Bill
by AllAfrica, 14 Mar 2017
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the decision today by Cabinet to withdraw the Implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Bill [B 23 - 2016]. The DA believes that in light of the recent High Court decision, and now the decision of Cabinet to withdraw this Bill, that we should all take the opportunity to step back and properly assess the situation. It may well be that the International Criminal Court (ICC) requires reform and South Africa should actively engage in discussions around such reform. However this does not mean that South Africa should join the polecats of world in abandoning our commitment to human rights by leaving the ICC entirely. In recent years, numerous decisions by our ANC-led national government have made clear and dangerous departures from the human-rights based foreign policy which was promoted by Nelson Mandela and which aligns with our Constitutional democracy. The original decision was made by the ANC in haste and we are glad that sanity has now prevailed.
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Philippine 'death squad' member not afraid of Duterte, says more will speak out
by Reuters, 09 Mar 2017
A former policeman who confessed to being part of a "death squad" under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said he did not fear him, and believed four other members of his alleged hit team would come forward to testify. In an interview at a safe house, Arturo Lascanas, 56, told Reuters that he felt safer and at ease after publicly admitting his role in what he said were more than 200 extrajudicial killings in Davao when Duterte was a mayor obsessed with wiping out crime. "I'm happy because I know there would still be others who will come forward after me to reveal the killings in Davao," said the second member of the so-called "Davao death squad" to testify at Senate inquiries. Human rights groups documented about 1,400 suspicious killings in Davao during the 22 years Duterte was mayor and critics say the eight-month-old war on drugs he unleashed as president bears the same hallmarks. That crackdown has seen 8,000 people killed, a third in police operations. Police deny involvement in the other killings, for which many have an assassination-style pattern. "Nothing is impossible with God. I feared God but not him," Lascanas said of the president. "I'm confident and happy now because I have done what I have to do, telling all of you what I have done. I may not be saved, but God will take care of me." Lascanas, a policeman for more than three decades, in his sworn affidavit detailed at length several incidents in which the death squad had carried out killings of suspected criminals. On Thursday, he said there was mistrust among those involved in those alleged incidents since he went public last month and they feared they might be "erased".
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