Crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute

From the inordinate ado about impeachment, let us look at the more global problem before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

One of the crimes under the jurisdiction of the International ICC are crimes against humanity. It is important that we understand the meaning of these crimes so as to contribute meaningfully to any conversation concerning the case against former president Rodrigo Duterte.

Under Article 7 of the Rome Statute, the term "crime against humanity" means any of the following acts committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer of population, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law.

The term "crime against humanity" also includes torture, rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity. Well, the charges against the former president do not include sexual violence. I have not seen any of such kind.

Also included in the term "crime against humanity" is persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, as defined under paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph, or any crime within the jurisdiction of the court.

"Crime against humanity" also includes enforced disappearance of persons, the crime of apartheid, and other inhumane acts of similar character, intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health". Well, the charges against former president Duterte also include alleged crimes of this nature.

The Rome Statute also explains that the phrase "attack directed against any civilian population" means a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1 against any civilian population, pursuant to, or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack."

"Extermination" includes the intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia, the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population." Enslavement means the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership over a person and includes the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in persons, in particular women and children."

"Enforced disappearance of persons" means the arrest, detention, or abduction, of persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of removing them from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time."

There are many concepts and definitions and we do not have enough space to tackle all of them. Both the prosecution and the defense are currently preparing for the coming trial. There was a motion to inhibit two of the three judges of the trial court, but the motion was denied which was not good news for the defense.

Given these definitions, the huge question is: Does the prosecution have evidence to prove any or all of the charges against former president Duterte? I would think that the prosecution has enough evidence. The defense has no burden to prove anything. Its only thrust is to undermine the intrinsic and extrinsic value of each piece of evidence presented by the prosecution.

I am not in a position to make a legal prognosis of the ultimate outcome of the case against the former president. One thing is sure though, in the court of public opinion, the Dutertes are winning against the administration. The results of the last midterm polls indicated that the people were programmed to believe that the ICC case and the impeachment are acts of persecution inflicted by BBM and the House speaker against the Dutertes who helped him win in 2022.

The ICC case and the impeachment are, in fact, being used by the Dutertes to put the administration's image in very bad light. The Dutertes are smarter than the Marcoses. They could turn around a misfortune into a solid political armament.