Who are the lawyers who can appear before the ICC?

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Not every lawyer is qualified to practice before the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is now in the spotlight following the arrest of Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity linked to his violent war on drugs.

In fact, only six Filipino lawyers — five counsels and one assistant to counsel — have been accredited by the ICC to participate in proceedings. Their approval followed a vetting process that assessed their qualifications, legal expertise, and ethical standing.

For lawyers to be admitted, they should have “proven competence” in international and criminal law and procedure, and must have at least 10 years of experience in criminal proceedings in the capacity of a judge, prosecutor, advocate. They are also required to have “excellent knowledge of and be fluent” in English or French, which are the working languages of the ICC.

Lawyers wanting to join the list of ICC counsels must also have not been convicted of any serious criminal or disciplinary offenses “considered to be incompatible with the nature of the office of counsel before the ICC.”

Assistants to counsel, meanwhile, must either have at least five years of experience in criminal proceedings or show proof of specific competence in international or criminal law and procedure.

The ICC has stated that accredited lawyers have the discretion to choose whom they represent — whether defendants, victims, or both. In the case of the six ICC-accredited Filipino lawyers, at least three (Joel Butuyan, Gilbert Andres, and Kristina Conti) are publicly assisting drug war victims and their families.

Joel Butuyan at the Congress quad comm hearing

Joel Butuyan
Accredited counsel

Butuyan is a human rights lawyer with more than three decades of experience in criminal and civil cases, among others. He is managing partner at the Butuyan & Rayel Law Offices and the chairperson of the Center for International Law (Centerlaw).

Centerlaw is a group established in 2003 that seeks to “work for the recognition and application of international law norms — specifically those relating to human rights, humanitarian law, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press — as automatic and self-executory in Philippine legal order.”

Centerlaw is one of the groups helping victims and their families as they seek legal remedies against Duterte’s drug war. Butuyan’s group helped Efren Morillo, a survivor of a police operation, and other families secure a writ of amparo in 2017. It also represented drug war victims’ families in filing a petition before the Supreme Court against tokhang operations in San Andres, Manila. Centerlaw also submitted a communication before the ICC covering more than 400 victims.

Butuyan obtained his undergraduate degree in economics in 1986, and law degree in 1990, both from the University of the Philippines (UP). He received his Master of Laws from the College of William and Mary in the United States in 1994.

Gilbert Andres
Accredited counsel

Gilbert Andres is a human rights lawyer and senior partner at the Butuyan & Rayel Law Offices. He currently serves as executive director of CenterLaw, an organization he first joined as an international law fellow in 2009.

Andres previously worked as legal officer of Media Defense Southeast Asia and has been a lecturer in various universities, including law schools of Lyceum University of the Philippines and Adamson University.

One of his high-profile cases is the 2009 Ampatuan massacre, one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in Philippine history. He was a private prosecutor in the case and represented several of the 58 victims. The powerful Ampatuan brothers were convicted of murder in relation to the massacre in 2019.

In 2015, Andres was one of the two lawyers who represented Filipino fishermen in filing an urgent request for the United Nations to “intervene, remind, and direct China and its state agents to respect the human rights — including the right to livelihood, the right to adequate food, and the right to life — of the Filipino fisherfolks over their traditional fishing grounds and safe refuge in the Scarborough Shoal.”

Andres obtained his physics undergraduate degree in 1998 and his law degree in 2008, both from UP.

Kristina Conti Congress quad comm hearing

Kristina Conti
Accredited assistant to counsel

Kristina Conti is a human rights lawyer and currently serves as the National Capital Region secretary-general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers. She earned both her journalism and law degrees from UP.

Conti has represented political activists and human rights workers throughout her legal career, including the case of UP students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan, who disappeared in 2006. In 2017, retired army major general Jovito Palparan was convicted of kidnapping and serious illegal detention in relation to their case and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Conti has assisted individuals facing charges under the anti-terror law, red-tagging, and other state-led harassment tactics. She also defended those who were wrongly detained or persecuted during the coronavirus pandemic.

For the past nine years, Conti has assisted families of drug war victims, including mothers and widows from the Rise Up for Life and for Rights group. As of March 26, she is the only Filipino lawyer accredited to serve as assistant to counsel at the ICC.

Harry Roque
Accredited counsel

Harry Roque is a former human right lawyer who served as spokesperson of then-president Rodrigo Duterte. He has consistently defended the violent policies of Duterte, even if he once warned the public against voting for the “self-professed murderer.”

Prior to joining Duterte’s cabinet, Roque was partner at the Roque & Butuyan Law Office from 1991 to 2017, and chairperson of Centerlaw from 2005 to 2015. He was also an associate professor in his alma mater, UP College of Law from 2007 to 2015.

Roque also had a short stint as Kabayan party-list representative at the House of Representatives in 2016.

After Duterte’s term, Roque has been in the middle of a legal battle in relation to his alleged role in a scam farm in Pampanga. He faces a criminal complaint for human trafficking filed by the Philippine National Police in October 2024, as well as a congressional warrant. Before arriving in The Hague, Roque had been out of the country, with reports stating that he allegedly went to Dubai and China after failing to enter the US.

Roque obtained his undergraduate degree in economics and political science from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor in 1986, and his law degree from UP in 1990. He holds a Master of Laws from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Nashmyleen Marohomsalic
Accredited counsel

Nashmyleen Marohomsalic is a lawyer from Lanao del Sur.

In August 2024, the the Bangsamoro Transition Authority adopted a resolution commending Marohomsalic for being accredited as ICC counsel. She is referred to in the resolution as the “first Bangsamoro to be among the elite list of admitted counsel before the honorable ICC.”

A decade-old post on X (formerly Twitter) shows that she appealed to groups and individuals involved in the peace process in Mindanao to “think of the civilians.”

Marohomsalic’s LinkedIn profile states that she obtained her philosophy degree from UP in 2007 and her law degree from the Ateneo de Manila University in 2011. She joined the Philippine Bar in 2012, according to the Supreme Court’s lawyers’ list.

Charles Janzen Chua
Accredited counsel

Charles Janzen Chua is a lawyer who runs his own firm, Chua Law Office. He joined the Philippine Bar in 2005, according to the lawyers’ list of the Supreme Court.

He was one of the evaluators during the 2024 moot court of the International Bar Association of the ICC, according to an event pamphlet.

Chua authored an article on remote work as an alternative arrangement for employees, which was featured in the special COVID-19 pandemic issue of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Journal published in August 2020.

Chua obtained his communications undergraduate degree from De La Salle University in 1998 and his law degree from Ateneo Law School in 2003. – Rappler.com

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Who are the lawyers who can appear before the ICC?