Former Philippines’ Justice Secretary and now Senator, Leila de Lima (Liberal Party of Philippines – LI full-member), has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to intervene in her country amid a vicious ‘war on drugs’ that has seen almost 4,000 people killed since June 2016.

Extra-judicial killings sanctioned under the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, have caused widespread terror and promoted the Liberal parliamentarian to take a stand, amid concerns about her safety. “[ICC] should start to think about investigating already or doing an inquiry into the killings as crimes against humanity,” she recently told reporters.

Speaking out in defence of the human rights of Filipinos, Senator De Lima said: “You cannot dismiss this sort of rhetoric as just a figure of speech or hyperbole because that’s not how the people on the ground have been interpreting the pronouncements of the President.”

I am undoubtedly being targeted because I’m a woman, because we have a misogynistic President.

The former Justice Secretary expressed her concern at President Duterte’s open contempt of women. She added: “I am undoubtedly being targeted because I’m a woman, because we have a misogynistic President. He regards women as inferior … that we are second-class citizens,”

Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ has been heavily criticised by the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States.