"Duterte's arrest on an ICC warrant... shows that suspected perpetrators of the worst crimes, including government leaders, can and will face justice," said one human rights advocate.
Protesters demonstrate demanding justice for drug war victims, after the arrest of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, in Quezon City on March 11, 2025.
(Photo: Earvin Perias / AFP)
Eloise Goldsmith
Mar 11, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
On Tuesday, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by local authorities at Manila's international airport after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity. News of his arrest prompted some observers to urge the arrest of another public figure who faces ICC charges: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Duterte case will pose a test for the court, according to The New York Times. In the past six months, the ICC has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military junta in Myanmar.
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote "Perhaps Netanyahu and Gallant will be next..." in response to the news. Danny Shaw, a professor at City University of New York, posted a video of Duterte's arrest and wrote: "Why don't they arrest Netanyahu?"
Wim Zwijnenburg, a project leader at the Dutch peace organization PAX, wrote, "now do Netanyahu."
On Tuesday night, Duterte was placed on a plane that was bound for The Hague, where the court is headquartered, per the Times, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.
The ICC has accused Duterte of crimes against humanity during his time as president and when he was the mayor of the city of Davao. During his tenure as president, from 2016 to 2022, Duterte's security forces carried out thousands of killings that his government cast as drug-related cases. In a 2017 report, Human Rights Watch described his "war on drugs" as effectively "a campaign of extrajudicial execution in impoverished areas of Manila and other urban areas." Philippine National Police officers and unidentified "vigilantes" killed over 7,000 people between the start of his term and the release of that Human Rights Watch report, according to the group.
In 2017, Duterte earned praise from U.S. President Donald Trump, who told him in a phone call that he was doing "an unbelievable job on the drug problem," according to reporting at the time.
"Duterte's arrest on an ICC warrant is a hopeful sign for victims in the Philippines and beyond. It shows that suspected perpetrators of the worst crimes, including government leaders, can and will face justice, wherever they are in the world," said Agnes Callamard, secretary general of the human rights group Amnesty International, in a statement Tuesday. "At a time when too many governments renege on their ICC obligations while others attack or sanction international courts, Duterte's arrest is a huge moment for the power of international law."
Duterte's former chief legal counsel and presidential spokesperson, Salvador Panelo, said that the "ICC has no jurisdiction in the Philippines," in part because "the country withdrew as an ICC member state in 2018," according to a post on social media.
According to the Times, the court says the case only considers alleged crimes from the time when the country was still part of the court.
According to a copy of he warrant, which was obtained by the Times, three judges of the ICC said they believed Duterte "was responsible for the drug war killings that took place when he was president and mayor of Davao, and that there were reasonable grounds to believe that these attacks were 'both widespread and systematic.'"
The government itself, in 2022, said that over 6,200 "drug suspects" were killed during Duterte's war on drugs starting in 2016. Rights groups put the total number of people who died much higher, in the tens of thousands, according to PBS.
Catching the world’s most wanted: the ICC’s impossible task
By AFP
March 11, 2025
ICC Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang at the Hague court on August 22, 2023 - Copyright AFP Holmes CHAN
Olivia BUGAULT
The arrest on Tuesday of former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, by police acting on an International Criminal Court warrant tied to his deadly war on drugs, marks a success for the ICC, which has been struggling for almost 23 years against a lack of recognition and enforcement power.
Backed by 125 member states, the jurisdiction seeks to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s gravest crimes when countries are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.
The wheels of international justice grind slowly, as evidenced by the court’s low conviction rate.
However, it’s not all about the final judgement, experts say.
The mere fact of pursuing alleged perpetrators of atrocities sends a message that the international community is determined to fight impunity.
– Catch me if you can –
Since it began work in 2002, the ICC has opened 32 cases for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and offences against the administration of justice.
Fourteen of them, or roughly 40 percent, are ongoing, in most cases because the suspects are still at large.
Without a police force, the Hague-based court is unlikely to catch them soon.
Of the 60 arrest warrants issued since 2002, only 21 had been carried out before Duterte’s arrest.
The ICC relies on states to apprehend suspects.
But the incentive for them to cooperate is low because the court has “nothing to offer in return, except a commitment to seeing justice served”, former ICC adviser Pascal Turlan said.
The court’s wanted list includes Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. All three are accused of war crimes.
Russia is one of dozens of nations, including the United States, Israel and China, that do not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC, hampering its ability to investigate their nationals.
But some member states also defy its authority by, for instance, refusing to hand over suspects.
“When states don’t like what the ICC does, they don’t often cooperate,” said Nancy Combs, professor of law at William & Mary Law School in the United States.
– 11 convictions, all Africans –
ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah stressed that the court’s role is not to go after all suspected war criminals but to “encourage nations to deal with their own cases”.
Each case comes with a unique set of challenges, from interference by national governments to witness intimidation.
The latter caused the case against Kenya’s former deputy president William Ruto to fall apart in 2016, according to a former chief prosecutor.
These challenges partly explain the court’s low conviction rate.
Since its inception it has handed down 11 guilty verdicts, mostly against officials from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and four acquittals.
All those judged were Africans, leading to accusations that the ICC is unfairly targeting the continent.
Combs pointed out that some African countries, including Uganda, Ivory Coast and the DRC, had referred their own wars to the court for investigation in the early days, while other cases had been instigated by the United Nations Security Council.
“The ICC has diversified a lot but non-African states have resisted ICC jurisdiction more fiercely,” she pointed out, citing Russia as an example.
By AFP
March 11, 2025
ICC Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang at the Hague court on August 22, 2023 - Copyright AFP Holmes CHAN
Olivia BUGAULT
The arrest on Tuesday of former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, by police acting on an International Criminal Court warrant tied to his deadly war on drugs, marks a success for the ICC, which has been struggling for almost 23 years against a lack of recognition and enforcement power.
Backed by 125 member states, the jurisdiction seeks to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s gravest crimes when countries are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.
The wheels of international justice grind slowly, as evidenced by the court’s low conviction rate.
However, it’s not all about the final judgement, experts say.
The mere fact of pursuing alleged perpetrators of atrocities sends a message that the international community is determined to fight impunity.
– Catch me if you can –
Since it began work in 2002, the ICC has opened 32 cases for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and offences against the administration of justice.
Fourteen of them, or roughly 40 percent, are ongoing, in most cases because the suspects are still at large.
Without a police force, the Hague-based court is unlikely to catch them soon.
Of the 60 arrest warrants issued since 2002, only 21 had been carried out before Duterte’s arrest.
The ICC relies on states to apprehend suspects.
But the incentive for them to cooperate is low because the court has “nothing to offer in return, except a commitment to seeing justice served”, former ICC adviser Pascal Turlan said.
The court’s wanted list includes Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. All three are accused of war crimes.
Russia is one of dozens of nations, including the United States, Israel and China, that do not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC, hampering its ability to investigate their nationals.
But some member states also defy its authority by, for instance, refusing to hand over suspects.
“When states don’t like what the ICC does, they don’t often cooperate,” said Nancy Combs, professor of law at William & Mary Law School in the United States.
– 11 convictions, all Africans –
ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah stressed that the court’s role is not to go after all suspected war criminals but to “encourage nations to deal with their own cases”.
Each case comes with a unique set of challenges, from interference by national governments to witness intimidation.
The latter caused the case against Kenya’s former deputy president William Ruto to fall apart in 2016, according to a former chief prosecutor.
These challenges partly explain the court’s low conviction rate.
Since its inception it has handed down 11 guilty verdicts, mostly against officials from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and four acquittals.
All those judged were Africans, leading to accusations that the ICC is unfairly targeting the continent.
Combs pointed out that some African countries, including Uganda, Ivory Coast and the DRC, had referred their own wars to the court for investigation in the early days, while other cases had been instigated by the United Nations Security Council.
“The ICC has diversified a lot but non-African states have resisted ICC jurisdiction more fiercely,” she pointed out, citing Russia as an example.
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