The recent report of the International Criminal Court (ICC) showing that 94 percent of the victims of the Duterte administration’s bloody and sham War on Drugs (WoD) wants the court to investigate the regime for crimes against humanity, bolsters assertions long raised by victims’ families and human rights advocates.
Rise Up for Life and for Rights (RiseUp), a network of victims’ families of government’s war on drug and advocates, asserts that the Duterte government must be held accountable for crimes against humanity; that there is widespread impunity committed under the direct orders of the President; and that the utter failure of government’s domestic redress mechanisms has prompted families to seek justice at the international levels. Rise Up submitted communication complaint before the ICC in 2018 and has recently provided victims’ information to the court’s Victims Participation and Reparations Section (VPRS) after outgoing ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda requested the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber to commence investigation last June 14.
The VPRS of the ICC Registry, in its Public Redacted Registry Report on Victims’ Representations submitted to the ICC Trial Chamber on Aug. 27, noted that the victims want the (ICC) Prosecutor to investigate the crimes committed in the context of the war on drugs.
The report likewise affirms the harrowing toll on those left behind—from economic displacement, psychological and emotional trauma, social stigma besides the very obvious: a growing number of orphans, widows, mothers who buried their children, their lives will never be the same. It is clearly a war against the poor as we have long stressed. We note the report’s many references to this.
But more importantly, the accounts of the families show that the overwhelming support for the ICC to commence investigation is rooted on the demand for justice. We look forward to the ICC’s next steps—no matter how long it takes—in order to seek justice for our loved ones starting with Duterte’s prosecution and all his cohorts. The recent report of the International Criminal Court (ICC) showing that 94 percent of the victims of the Duterte administration’s bloody and sham War on Drugs (WoD) wants the court to investigate the regime for crimes against humanity, bolsters assertions long raised by victims’ families and human rights advocates.
Rise Up for Life and for Rights (RiseUp), a network of victims’ families of government’s war on drug and advocates, asserts that the Duterte government must be held accountable for crimes against humanity; that there is widespread impunity committed under the direct orders of the President; and that the utter failure of government’s domestic redress mechanisms has prompted families to seek justice at the international levels. Rise Up submitted communication complaint before the ICC in 2018 and has recently provided victims’ information to the court’s Victims Participation and Reparations Section (VPRS) after outgoing ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda requested the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber to commence investigation last June 14.
The VPRS of the ICC Registry, in its Public Redacted Registry Report on Victims’ Representations submitted to the ICC Trial Chamber on Aug. 27, noted that the victims want the (ICC) Prosecutor to investigate the crimes committed in the context of the war on drugs.
The report likewise affirms the harrowing toll on those left behind—from economic displacement, psychological and emotional trauma, social stigma besides the very obvious: a growing number of orphans, widows, mothers who buried their children, their lives will never be the same. It is clearly a war against the poor as we have long stressed. We note the report’s many references to this.
But more importantly, the accounts of the families show that the overwhelming support for the ICC to commence investigation is rooted on the demand for justice. We look forward to the ICC’s next steps—no matter how long it takes—in order to seek justice for our loved ones starting with Duterte’s prosecution and all his cohorts.