Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque. (INQUIRER.net file photo)
MANILA, Philippines — The Confederation of Lawyers of Asia and the Pacific (COLAP) has joined local groups in opposing the nomination of presidential spokesperson Harry Roque to the International Law Commission, an advisory body to the United Nations.
“Harry Roque, Jr. is instrumental in propping up the regime of President Duterte with all its human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, disdain for the rule of law and contempt against UN human rights bodies like the International Criminal Court,” COLAP said in a recent statement.
Roque’s nomination, the group said, “would be a great disservice to all the victims of human rights violations in the Philippines including the human rights defenders who were murdered, arrested, and red-tagged under the regime of President Duterte.”
COLAP is a member organization of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, an organization founded in 1946 which also has representation in the United Nations.
The group has members and officers from Pakistan, the Philippines, India, Japan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, South Korea, and Malaysia.
“We shall ask and lobby our respective governments and their diplomatic missions to deny Mr. Roque this further mockery of international law by not giving him their votes,” the group said.
“We call on the international community of lawyers, and defenders of human rights and the rule of law, to oppose the bid of Roque to be elected to the UN body, and to stand in solidarity with the Filipino people who are suffering under the oppressive regime of Duterte,” it added.
In reaction to the COLAP statement, Roque said: “PDI did not even qualify what this Confederation of Lawyers of Asia and the Pacific (COLAP) is and who are its members. All we saw at the time of publication is a Facebook page with no description and with no indication of who its members are. Its FB page merely describes it as a ‘lawyer and law firm.’ It also claims to have a website but when we checked, the site was not up. There is only a photo. There is no information on the group.”
The Philippine government earlier nominated Roque to become part of the 34-member ILC.
READ: Philippines nominates Roque to be part of UN’s Int’l Law Commission
There are eight seats to be filled in ILC by Asia-Pacific states with Japan, China, Korea, and Thailand, and other countries submitting their applications.
Those elected to the ILC will have a five-year term beginning Jan. 1, 2023.
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