A Philippines lawmaker on Friday slammed the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “turning a blind eye on the human rights excesses of Western nations,” calling it a “caricature of international justice.”
Senator Imee Marcos, 67, mentioned: “The ICC’s long-standing failure to investigate Western nations for countless crimes against humanity makes the court a caricature of international justice.”
Her feedback got here simply days after the Philippines introduced its intention to disengage with the ICC after it rejected Manila’s attraction to droop an investigation into its so-called conflict on medication.”
Marcos, the chairwoman of the nation’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee, claimed in a press release printed on the GMA News web site that the ICC is concentrating on Southeast Asian and African nations whereas “turning a blind eye on the human rights excesses of Western nations.”
“Human rights issues are openly used as pressure points and as bargaining chips to serve western neo-colonialism’s intertwined political, economic, and military agenda,” mentioned the senator, who’s the older sister of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“This month marks the 20th year of the ICC’s failure to bring those responsible to account. The West’s oft-invoked cliché about upholding an ‘international rules-based order’ is apparently a sham,” Marcos mentioned, who’s serving as senator since 2019, citing the ICC’s failure to analyze the 2003 conflict on Iraq.
She mentioned the conflict pursued by Western powers was “based on non-existent weapons of mass destruction and in violation of resolutions by the United Nations.”
“More than a million Iraqi soldiers and civilians were killed and displaced by that horrible war. Selective justice, anyone?” she requested.
“Picking on African nations and other ‘low-hanging fruit’ like the Philippines is easier for the ICC. The perpetual circus of putting leaders of less developed countries on trial seeks to divert the world’s attention from the crimes against humanity committed by the West. This diversion is necessary to prop up the false image of Western nations as the unimpeachable protectors of human rights,” Marcos mentioned.
President Marcos mentioned early this week that his authorities has reached “the level of its involvement with the ICC.”
Manila can’t cooperate with the ICC because of issues about jurisdiction and “attacks on the country’s sovereignty,” Marcos had mentioned.
On Monday, the ICC rejected the Philippines’ plea to droop a probe into the nation’s so-called “war on drugs,” ruling that Manila has not offered “persuasive reasons” to hunt the suspension.
“In the absence of persuasive reasons in support of ordering suspensive effect, the Appeals Chamber rejects the request. This is without prejudice to its eventual decision on the merits of the Philippines’ appeal against the Impugned Decision,” mentioned the ICC in an eight-page determination launched Monday night time.
The Philippines had early this month requested the ICC to droop a probe into the nation’s so-called conflict on medication.
“The prosecution’s activities in furtherance of its investigations would lack any legal foundation and encroach on the sovereignty of the Republic of the Philippines,” Manila’s prime prosecutor mentioned in a 51-page attraction to the ICC.
The ICC resumed its investigation into the controversial drug conflict launched by former Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte in January, arguing that it was “not satisfied that the Philippines is undertaking relevant investigations that would warrant a deferral of the court’s investigations on the basis of the complementarity principle.”
The Philippines Office of the Solicitor General, nonetheless, had requested the ICC tribunal’s Appeals Chamber to droop the investigation till the decision of its submission and to rule that the courtroom’s prosecution was not licensed to renew its probe.
In 2018, Duterte introduced that his nation would withdraw from the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, efficient March 2019. However, the courtroom mentioned it “retains jurisdiction with respect to alleged crimes that occurred on the territory of the Philippines while it was a state party.”
In Sept. 2021, the ICC opened a probe into alleged crimes in opposition to humanity dedicated from Nov. 1, 2011, to March 16, 2019, in the course of the conflict on medication.
However, it halted the probe on Nov. 18, 2021, after Manila raised objections.
However, the ICC prosecutor requested that the investigations be reopened on June 24, 2022.
Duterte has mentioned he “would never allow foreigners to sit in judgment of him as long as Philippine courts are willing and able to do so.”
Source: www.anews.com.tr
