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Perfecto ‘Boyet’ Caparas, LL.M. ’05, Associate Director of Graduate Programs at IU McKinney, and an S.J.D. candidate, presented a lecture titled “Impunity and Crime Against Humanity in the Philippines.” The talk was sponsored by the law school’s Amnesty International Law School Chapter and the Pro Bono United Nations Human Rights Reporting Organization. It took place on August 31 in the Wynne Courtroom at Inlow Hall.

Caparas talked about how the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and Philippine law could be brought to bear on President Rodrigo Duterte. Over 7,000 suspected drug users and dealers are alleged to have been murdered since Duterte was sworn into office in June 2016. Those who are targeted for killing are dragged from their homes at night and shot at close range by police officers who often wear disguises, Caparas said. Policing in Davao City, where Duterte was mayor before being elected president, was conducted in much the same way.

Caparas has first-hand knowledge of policing in the Philippines. He worked as a police reporter in Manila at night while attending law school earlier in the evening. Caparas received an LL.M. with honors at the University of Hong Kong, and a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts from Manuel L. Quezon University. He is the founder of the Pro Bono United Nations Human Rights Reporting Initiative at IU McKinney.

Duterte’s rise to power and the human rights abuses happening led Caparas to examine his conscience and caused him at first to be fearful for the future of the place where he grew up. “What can I do? I started writing,” he said. “I’m a journalist. Just like fear, courage is contagious.”