by Emeritus Professor Stephen Cordner AM

Stephen Cordner is a forensic pathologist and was the founding Director of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine from 1987 to 2014. He has a particular interest in the management of the dead following human rights abuses, conflict and disaster. Now retired, Stephen has undertaken a number of missions in this regard for the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations.

In 2016, when Rodrigo Duterte was elected President of the Philippines, he promised to deal with the problem of drugs by killing those involved. During his six-year Presidential term, Human Rights Watch estimates that 25,000 people were killed mainly during covert police operations or by unknown assailants, presumed to be paramilitary or off-duty police personnel.

On 15 September 2021, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court decided to investigate whether the specific legal element of the crime against humanity of murder under law had been met with respect to the killings. In response, President Duterte removed his country from the jurisdiction of the Court. However, the Philippines remains under investigation.