CIVICUS discusses the arrest of former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte with Maria Sol Taule, deputy secretary general of the human rights organisation Karapatan. Founded in 1995, Karapatan is a national alliance of civil society organisations (CSOs) and activists working for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines. It documents and denounces extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary imprisonment and militarisation and challenges the prevailing culture of impunity.
The struggle for accountability took a step forward on 11 March, when Duterte was arrested and detained on the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) orders on charges of crimes against humanity, including thousands of extrajudicial killings, committed in the context of his ‘war on drugs’ between 2016 and 2022. The arrest deepened political divisions, with human rights activists celebrating it as a victory in the fight against impunity while Duterte’s supporters condemned it as foreign interference.
