MOST Asian countries are “aloof” to international courts and international justice, said the Filipino judge Raul Pangalangan in the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In a video message during a Stratbase ADRi forum on Friday, Pangalangan said he joined the campaign to convince more states to join the court and sign the ICC charter, the Rome Statute and observed that Asia is the “least represented region among their member-states.”
Asia had only 19 out of 53 countries who signed the charter, which runs pale to the number of countries that signed in Africa and Latin America, which had 33 out of 54 and 28 out of 33, respectively.
Pangalangan pointed out that Asian states are averse to the international courts because they “hesitate to submit disputes to a neutral third party that will decide on the basis of fixed rules.”
“They prefer a mediator whose goal is the neutral appeasement of warring tribes who will massaged away toward a compromise,” he said. “The aim is to say what is acceptable rather than to tell right from wrong and to draw a bright line between the two.”
Last March President Duterte ordered the country’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute, which created the ICC.
The order followed the ICC’s announcement that it would conduct a preliminary examination on Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.
The preliminary examination is done to determine if there is reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation according to the criteria established by the Rome Statute.
ICC has jurisdiction on genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The United Kingdom was also saddened with the country’s decision to withdraw from the ICC.
“We regret that the Philippines has decided to leave the International Criminal Court—an institution that we consider to be a cornerstone of the Rules-Based International System, because it makes all people safer,” said UK Foreign Office Minister Mark Field in the forum.
“We believe that it needs the support of the whole international community, and we are sure that the Philippines could make a great contribution,” he added.
Pangalangan said the best way to strengthen the rule of law internationally is to first strengthen the rule of law domestically.
“That is at the heart of what the Rome Statute calls the principle of complementarity, that national courts must have the first crack at a problem that national trials are closer to the victims and the witnesses, more familiar with their milieu, more accessible to the victims and the larger public and would then get a greater sense of ownership over the justice that they seek,” he said.
“In this sense, the lesson that international courts can teach many counties in Asia is justice according to law is possible. That is one simple lesson we direly need,” he added.