Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has been flown to The Hague, following his arrest at Manila airport. Duterte was taken into custody after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity as part of his brutal ‘war on drugs’.
Duterte’s lawyers have petitioned that he be returned to Manila, maintaining that the arrest was unlawful as Duterte had previously withdrawn the Philippines from the ICC. However, the Philippine government’s official newswire service, the Philippine News Agency (PNA), stated that ‘all the legal procedures’ had been followed.
‘We do not do this because it was derived from or came from ICC,’ said Philippines president Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. ‘It’s a request to the Philippine government from Interpol to enforce the arrest warrant, and of course we comply with our commitments to Interpol.’
Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte – currently the country’s vice president – has stated that her father was ‘kidnapped’. The Marcos government, which had originally challenged the ICC’s jurisdiction, later said it would work with Interpol if an arrest warrant were issued after a rift developed between the Marcos and Duterte camps. The warrant contains allegations about extrajudicial killings during both Duterte’s presidency and his previous tenure as mayor of Davao City.
‘Former president Duterte’s arrest and transfer to The Hague is a long-overdue victory against impunity that could bring victims and their families a step closer to justice,’ said deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, Bryony Lau. ‘This momentous event sends a message to human rights abusers everywhere that one day they could be held to account. President Marcos has begun to chip away at the longstanding impunity for drug-related killings in the Philippines. He should follow through by rescinding Duterte’s orders that unleashed the “war on drugs,” and prioritise comprehensive reforms of the Philippines police.’
Meanwhile, new drug trafficking routes are now opening up in war zones, UNODC executive director Ghada Waly told the latest session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna. This, coupled with the dark web’s ‘new black market’ for synthetic drugs, was helping to fuel global instability, she warned.
‘Today, the illicit drug market is becoming more unpredictable, driven by the impact of synthetic drugs,’ she said. ‘Trafficking routes run through war zones and rule of law vacuums, from Haiti to the Levant to the Golden Triangle, fuelling instability.’ Cryptocurrencies were also allowing traffickers to ‘move illicit profits undetected’ while social media platforms had become ‘major channels for promoting and advertising drugs online, particularly targeting young people and vulnerable users.’
While the reporting of the first nitazene – isotonitazene – to the UNODC was as recent as 2019, 25 more had now been reported. ‘Synthetic drugs have become one of the most urgent and elusive drug challenges that we face,’ she said. ‘They are evolving every day, expanding in reach and growing in potency.’