The Hague, Netherlands — The president of the member-states of the International Criminal Court said Friday he regretted the Philippines was leaving the tribunal.
“I regret this development. A state party withdrawing from the Rome Statute would negatively impact our collective efforts towards fighting impunity,” President O-Gon Kwon said, after the Philippines officially gave notice that it was leaving the court.
Philippine Ambassador to the UN Teddy Locsin Jr. said he delivered the notice to UN Chef De Cabinet Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti.
In the notice dated March 15, 2018, the Philippines said the decision to withdraw was the country’s “principled stand against those who politicize and weaponize human rights, even as its independent and well-functioning organs and agencies continue to exercise jurisdiction over complaints, issues, problems and concerns arising from its efforts to protect its people.”
On Wednesday, President Rodrigo Duterte announced the country was withdrawing its ratification of the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the ICC.
The President cited “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks on my person as against my administration, engineered by the officials of the United Nations, as well as the attempt by the (ICC) special prosecutor to place my person within the jurisdiction of the (ICC)” as reasons for the withdrawal. Agence France Presse, Eagle News Service