Law of Duterte Land Podcast: Human rights as an election agenda

Human rights should be on every citizen’s mind whether or not it’s the election season. But perhaps more so during elections, when they are choosing the leaders whose regard for and understanding of human rights will determine accountability.

Amid a pandemic, joblessness, and sinking economy, will Filipinos care about killings in the drug war when they fill in their ballots in May 2022?

Is the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into these killings under President Rodrigo Duterte a top consideration for voters?

We talk about that with Filipino lawyer Perfecto “Boyet” Caparas, a former journalist who’s taking up his Doctor of Juridical Science studies at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. He has a Master of Laws in Human Rights from the University of Hong Kong.

 “It is in the moral, political, and legal spheres that the ICC investigation assumes immediate, medium-term, and long-term significance,” wrote Caparas for Jurist.org.

Rappler’s justice reporter Lian Buan talks to Caparas on this topic on the Law of Duterte Land Podcast.

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For past podcast episodes:

• Episode 1 Part 1: Supreme Court’s most controversial decisions
• Episode 1 Part 2: Department of Justice’s evolving definition of warrantless arrests
• Episode 2: The rule of law in the time of the coronavirus
• Episode 3: Pandemic and the great wall of free speech
• Episode 4: Will petition to disclose Duterte health work?
• Episode 5: Legal difficulties of a prisoner mass release
• Episode 6: Breaking down the ABS-CBN franchise legal and political issues
• Episode 7: ABS-CBN and the 3 tangled branches of government
• Episode 8: Are extraordinary writs still effective in the time of Duterte?
• Episode 9: Dissecting anti-terror bill and threats to freedoms
• Episode 10: The problems with the Cybercrime Law
• Episode 11: Can we trust the gov’t panel probing drug war deaths?
• Episode 12: Why press freedom is legally protected
• Episode 13: What is People’s Initiative and will it work for ABS-CBN?
• Episode 14: The new push for death penalty
• Episode 15: A State of terror
• Episode 16: GCTA’s thorn – Do bad men deserve good things?
• Episode 17: Policies beyond body count of Duterte’s drug war
• Episode 18: Can we really bring Xi Jinping to the ICC?
• Episode 19: Philippine courts and the death of baby River
• Episode 20: Deep dive into anti-terror law IRR
• Episode 21: Supreme Court and the SALN challenge
• Episode 22: Where PH stands in fight for climate justice
• Episode 23: How to legally fight red-tagging
• Episode 24: Hope for the Rule of Law with Dino de Leon
• Episode 25: Summary of anti-terror law petitions
• Episode 26: May it please the Court – the anti-terror law orals
• Episode 27: Investigating Duterte’s drug war using hard data
• Episode 28: Your Honors, they are killing lawyers
• Episode 29: Choosing who sits on the Bench
• Episode 30: Lugaw, RA 11332, and common sense policy
• Episode 31: Understanding electoral protests
• Episode 32: Captain Ri and all the president’s men
• Episode 33: The law of NTF-ELCAC
• Episode 34: Lawyering under threat
• Episode 35: Duterte’s ICC prospects
• Episode 36: Plunderers and how to get them
• Episode 37: Can Duterte run for VP?
• Episode 38: ICC hopes alive in Supreme Court ‘loss’
• Episode 39: If justice favors the state
• Episode 40: ICC probes drug war. What happens now?
• Episode 41: Memory law of Marcosian atrocities to #neverforget
• Episode 42: Marcos ill-gotten loot and where to find it

If you have tips and suggestions for episodes, email the host at lian.buan@rappler.com. – Rappler.com