KARAPATAN condemned the US for its barefaced attacks on the International Criminal Court (ICC), after the US escalated economic and diplomatic sanctions against the ICC since the latter looked into war crimes committed by the Israeli Zionist regime in Palestine.
The US had already been ramping up sanctions against the ICC since 2018 when the international court began investigations into war crimes committed by US troops in Afghanistan.
The Trump regime has, among others, denied visas to ICC personnel who want to conduct investigations in the US. The visa ban has also extended to family members of ICC officials. It has likewise been restricting resources, financial channels and logistics to limit the ICC’s ability to conduct investigations.
“Such attacks on institutions that prosecute US and Israeli officials and troops committing war crimes and genocide are utterly condemnable,” said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay. “Just as condemnable is the Marcos Jr. regime’s opportunistic stance of basically supporting the US position on the ICC.”
“Although Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is so far benefiting from the ICC’s detention, investigation and prosecution of his political rival Rodrigo Duterte, the ICC’s task of going after war criminals puts Marcos Jr. in danger of being in the ICC’s crosshairs someday,” said Palabay. “Calls to re-ratify the Rome Statute have been repeatedly brushed aside by Marcos Jr. He has not issued any strongly worded statements in support of the US position, but being a US lackey, it is only a matter of time before he echoes Trump’s vociferous attacks on the ICC.”
Palabay declared: “In the face of all this, we call on the ICC to remain steadfast in the trial and conviction of Rodrigo Duterte and other heads of state for war crimes and crimes and against humanity.”