US sanctions on ICC can affect drug war probe in PH–Human Rights Watch
Sanctions imposed by the United States against the International Criminal Court (ICC) would have a “chilling effect” when the ICC conducts its work in other countries—including the Philippines.
This is according to the statement by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its statement on Tuesday, which highlighted the potential effects of House Resolution No. 23, or the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, that was recently passed by the US House of Representatives on Jan. 9.
HRW noted that the bill aims to impose sanctions “against the ICC, its officials, and those supporting investigations at the court involving US citizens or citizens of US allies, which are not members of the ICC.”
Quoting Adam Keith, the director for accountability at Human Rights First, HRW said that the bill would “make it sanctionable to conduct or support the ICC’s ongoing investigation into extrajudicial drug-war killings in the Philippines, even though that country joined the court in 2011.”
This is because the country’s withdrawal from the ICC in 2019 under the Duterte administration made the Philippines “an ally of the United States that has not consented to [ICC] jurisdiction or is not a state party to the Rome Statute.”
Thus, the ICC’s “scrutiny of people in or from the Philippines would be sanctionable under the bill.”
“The highly likely imposition of US sanctions against ICC officials represents a critical threat to the international justice system,” said Maria Elena Vignoli, senior counsel of the International Justice Program at HRW.
“These threats can only be overcome through the consistent political and practical support of the court’s (ICC) member states,” she said.
Last January 6, human rights advocates from the Philippines wrote a letter to members of the US Congress in order to convince them to vote against HR 23.
Among the 27 signatories of the letter were former Sen. Leila de Lima and human rights lawyer Ruben Carranza.
