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Also, the matters contained in the following were written in accordance with the law, rules, and jurisprudence prevailing at the time of writing and posting, and do not include any future developments on the subject matter under discussion.
AT A GLANCE
- On October 24, 1945, the Philippines became a signatory to the United Nations Charter. The Philippines is among the fifty-one (51) original charter members that created the United Nations (UN) in 1945.
- The United Nations (UN) has been partnering with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines to assist and support it in its important development, peace-building and humanitarian priorities. (United Nations Philippines Website, accessed at https://philippines.un.org/en/about/about-the-un on October 10, 2022.)
- The UN has provided technical assistance and advocacy to State institutions to respect, uphold and implement the international treaty obligations and agreed development goals that the Philippines has voluntarily adhered to over the years. (United Nations Philippines Website, accessed at https://philippines.un.org/en/about/about-the-un on October 10, 2022.)
Purpose of the United Nations
The law says:
“The Purposes of the United Nations are:
- To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
- To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
- To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
- To be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.” (Article 1, Charter of the United Nations)
Principles of the United Nations
The law says:
“The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.
- The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its members.
- All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfil in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
- All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and. justice, are not endangered.
- All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
- All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action.”
- The Organization shall ensure that states which are not Members of the United Nations act in accordance with these Principles so far as may be necessary for the maintenance of international peace and security.
- Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII. (Article 2, Charter of the United Nations)
Question:
President X of State A announced its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC). He submitted the State’s Notice of Withdrawal through a Note Verbale to the United Nations Secretary-General, in compliance with the Rome Statute. The ICC acknowledged the State’s withdrawal. Was President X’s diplomatic act of withdrawal from the ICC a constitutional act?
Answer:
Yes. Supreme Court, in the case of Pangilinan, et. al. v. Cayetano (G.R. No. 238875, July 21, 2021), has ruled that:
“Treaties may effectively implement the constitutional imperative to protect human rights and consider social justice in all phases of development-but so can a statute, as Republic Act No. 9851, the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity, does.
The President, as primary architect of our foreign policy and as head of state, is allowed by the Constitution to make preliminary determinations on what, at any given moment, might urgently be required in order that our foreign policy may manifest our national interest.
Absent a clear and convincing showing of breach of the Constitution or a law, brough through an actual, live controversy and by a party that presents direct, material, and substantial injury as a result of such breach, this Court will stay its hand in declaring a diplomatic act as unconstitutional.
As primary architect of foreign policy, the president enjoys a degree of leeway to withdraw from treaties. However, this leeway cannot go beyond the president’s authority under the Constitution and the laws. In appropriate cases, legislative involvement is imperative. The president cannot unilaterally withdraw from a treaty if there is subsequent legislation which affirms and implements it.
Thus, the president can withdraw from a treaty as a matter of policy in keeping with our legal system, if a treaty is unconstitutional or contrary to provisions of an existing prior statute. However, the president may not unilaterally withdraw from a treaty: (a) when the Senate conditionally concurs, such that it requires concurrence also to withdraw; or (b) when the withdrawal itself will be contrary to a statute, or to a legislative authority to negotiate and enter into a treaty, or an existing law which implements a treaty.”
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