By Francessca S. Abalos
PHILIPPINE efforts to pursue accountability for alleged abuses linked to former President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s anti-drug campaign could offer lessons for post-conflict justice and reconciliation efforts in Ukraine, a Ukrainian human rights investigator said.
Ukraine is not coming to the Philippines to lecture Filipinos about justice and accountability, and neither is it seeking to be lectured, Oksana Pokalchuk, co-executive director of Ukrainian human rights and war crime investigation group Truth Hounds, told BusinessWorld.
Instead, both sides can learn from each other’s experiences because both countries have had to confront difficult human rights and accountability issues, she pointed out.
“We don’t want to teach and we don’t want to be taught because, that’s the thing, we both know what happened to our countries,” Ms. Pokalchuk said via Zoom.
Ms. Pokalchuk’s group has documented more than 17,600 potential war crime incidents since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, gathering evidence that could support criminal prosecutions.
The Philippines, meanwhile, continues to grapple with the aftermath of Mr. Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, which is the subject of proceedings before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Ms. Pokalchuk said international justice mechanisms such as the ICC should complement, rather than replace, domestic efforts to pursue accountability.
“ICC is not something that replaces local law,” she said. “It’s a complementary mechanism that just supports existing tools in the country.”
She said countries should focus on strengthening local courts, prosecutors and investigators while using international institutions to address cases that domestic systems cannot effectively pursue.
Ukraine’s experience has also underscored the limits of relying solely on multilateral bodies, she said, noting that Russia’s veto power at the United Nations has constrained efforts to secure action through the Security Council.
That has forced Ukraine to develop other legal and diplomatic pathways to pursue accountability for alleged war crimes and acts of aggression, Ms. Pokalchuk added.
She also pointed to truth and reconciliation initiatives as a possible model for post-conflict societies.
Citing Philippine efforts to examine alleged abuses linked to the drug war, Ms. Pokalchuk said Ukraine might eventually need a similar mechanism as communities recover from occupation and armed conflict.
“It’s a very, very good tool for seeking justice,” she said.
Ms. Pokalchuk said survivors and victims’ families should have opportunities to participate in activities that let them share experiences and engage with others who endured similar trauma.
The opportunity to connect with other survivors, share experiences and support one another is an important part of the healing process, she said.
She added that shared experiences of loss and injustice could create common ground across countries despite differences in history and circumstance.
During her visit to Manila, Ms. Pokalchuk met with lawyers, academics and civil society groups involved in human rights and accountability work.
She said Truth Hounds is exploring academic cooperation with Philippine universities, including lectures on international humanitarian law, accountability mechanisms and legal developments related to the war in Ukraine.
Ms. Pokalchuk also praised Philippine lawyers, saying they are respected internationally for their legal expertise.
Whether societies emerge stronger after periods of violence depends partly on how governments, institutions and the media manage public discussions about those experiences, she said.
A transparent process could help build a stronger sense of national identity, while mishandling unresolved grievances risks deepening divisions, she added.