Int’l law expert: Kaufman ‘not being accurate’ in defining targets of crimes vs humanity

MANILA, Philippines – International law expert Ross Tugade, who is also an accredited assistant to counsel at the International Criminal Court (ICC), criticized former president Rodrigo Duterte’s lead counsel Nicholas Kaufman for failing to reference a part of the key legal document that guides the interpretation and evaluation of evidence in crimes against humanity. 

During a Rappler panel on Thursday, February 26, Tugade explained that the elements of crimes establish two critical considerations: first, the widespread and systematic nature of the attack, and second, the nature of the civilian population targeted.

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On the issue of widespread attacks, Tugade said that precedent from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia shows that the multiplicity of deaths, patterns of repeated attacks, temporal and geographical scope, and the mode of attacks together indicate a criminal pattern. Pattern, in this instance, refers to “non-accidental repetitions of a criminal design.”

Tugade also stressed that the language of the elements of crimes is deliberate. The use of the word “any” in “any civilian population” is intentional, meaning that the population targeted can be any segment of society. She traced the origin of the term to the Nuremberg trials and said that the interpretation evolved in the context of the Rome Statute. It now refers broadly to the populace subjected to crimes against humanity. 

“We can reasonably infer that it would refer to anyone suspected of peddling or using drugs, which at that time was quite arbitrary,” she said. “I don’t think Mr. Kaufman was quite being accurate, to put it mildly, when he said there should be a discriminating element as opposed to how we evaluate targets of genocide or war crimes.”

Duterte is currently detained at the ICC following his arrest on March 11, 2025. He is facing charges related to crimes against humanity over his violent war on drugs that resulted in at least 6,200 deaths in police operations alone by May 2022. The number reaches 30,000, including those killed vigilante-style, as estimated by human rights organizations.

The court is in the process of evaluating the evidence and arguments presented by both the prosecution and the defense to determine whether there are sufficient grounds to move the case forward to a full trial.

– Rappler.com