MANILA, Philippines — The Free Legal Assistance Group has reiterated its objection to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque’s nomination to sit in a United Nations expert panel that develops and codifies international law.
FLAG supplemented its letter to the International Law Commission submitted on September 12, highlighting Roque’s “concerning public pronouncements and their effect on his bid to be recognized as scholar in Public International Law.”
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“In particular, in his attempt to silence any international scrutiny of the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, Mr. Roque has not only publicly belittled and discredited the integrity and relevance of the United Nations, he has also displayed his patently erroneous understanding of international law,” FLAG said in its letter dated September 29.
With Roque’s nomination, he stands to get elected by the UN General Assembly to the ILC and become one of eight representatives from Asia-Pacific states to sit for five years in the panel beginning Jan. 1, 2023.
His nomination also earned objection from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers and the University of the Philippines, Diliman where he obtained his law degree and taught constitutional law and public international law for 15 years.
In affirming its objection to Roque’s nomination, FLAG cited the Duterte spokesperson’s statement calling the UN Human Rights Council a “toothless tiger” and a “shaming machinery” when it called for a comprehensive report on extrajudicial killings in the Philippines in July 2019.
“Clearly, Mr. Roque, by being the first to publicly belittle the United Nations and its efforts to protect human rights under international law, must also be the last person deserving of a seat in it,” the lawyers’ group added.
Duterte government and ICC
FLAG also cited Roque’s claims on the International Criminal Court will not exercise jurisdiction unless a member State is unwilling to prosecute under the principle of complementarity. To support this, Roque also noted that two previous presidents were imprisoned after their terms, FLAG said.
But the lawyers’ group said Roque was “manifestly wrong” as “unwillingness” refers to the prosecution of the person subjected to ICC proceedings. This puts the imprisonment of two other presidents unrelated to extrajudicial killings.
Duterte and his men are accused of committing crimes against humanity over the bloody “drug war” before the ICC. The international tribunal’s Pre-Trial Chamber has recently approved the request of the Office of the Prosecutor to launch an investigation into the Philippines.
“Yet, by justifying the absence of ‘unwillingness’ based on such entirely separate and historical cases of other persons, Mr. Roque has demonstrated not only that he is patently unaware of the ICC decisions, but also that he applies international law in a haphazard, illogical and misleading manner,” FLAG said.
They also pointed out Roque asserting that only the Philippines can investigate crimes within its territory after it pulled out from the ICC is wrong and expressly misleading. FLAG said that departure from the Rome Statute “does not divest the ICC of jurisdiction to investigate crimes that occurred until the date” the withdrawal took effect.
FLAG also told the ILC: “[T]hrough his constant and faithful defense of the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s public orders to kill, Mr. Roque has publicly extended assistance to the Philippine government under Mr. Duterte, that is now subject of the investigation authorized by the ICC.”
The lawyers’ group stressed that Roque, in his public pronouncements, gave assistance to “justify, condone, and trivialize the extrajudicial killings” in the Duterte administration.
“Mr. Roque’s own public pronouncements attest to his lack of integrity and erroneous understanding of international law, and repudiate any pretense of his being a person of recognized competence in international law,” FLAG said.
“FLAG respectfully asks the Commission, and the States Parties (through their respective Honorable Representatives) to peremptorily disregard the nomination of Mr. Roque and remove him from consideration for a seat in the Commission,” they added.