The nation watched in awe just days ago as former President Rodrigo Duterte was hustled near midnight onto a chartered Gulfstream G950 at Villamor Air Base in Manila and flown to The Hague to face trial for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.
His rise to power and eventual demise is a classic case study of shifting public opinion as viewed through the so-called Overton Window.
Duterte’s rhetoric was at times polarizing and violent. His hardline stances on drugs and crime, especially his so-called “war on drugs”, pushed policies that were formerly unthinkable into public discourse – and, eventually, acceptance.
Under his watch, phrases like “extrajudicial killings” and “death squads” unflinchingly entered daily conversations.
Ultimately, Duterte’s presidency became a textbook example of how political leaders can reshape social norms by leveraging populist narratives.
This shifting range of public opinion about what is acceptable public policy is known as the Overton Window, after Joseph Overton, an American political scientist.
Overton was not a sociologist but a political scientist and electrical engineer. He conceived an ideological framework for explaining how ideas and policies change from being politically unthinkable to becoming mainstream by shifting the “window of acceptability”.
Born in 1960 in Michigan, Overton was senior vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank in Midland, Michigan.
He died in 2003 from injuries suffered while piloting an ultralight aircraft.
In skilled political hands, the Overton Window can be manipulated by widening it, narrowing it, and shifting it from left to right or vice versa on the political spectrum.
Another recent example of the Overton Window at work includes the shifting views on the legalization of cannabis in Thailand; in the United States, Canada and Mexico; and in several countries in the European Union – Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, to name a few.
Another example is the acceptance of same sex marriage in 35 nations, mostly in the Americas. In Asia, only Taiwan recognizes same sex marriage.
To view shifts in the Overton Window in real time, one need only to follow the radically shifting policies of President Donald Trump in the United States.
Today, the International Criminal Court accuses Duterte, 79, of orchestrating anywhere from 6,000 to 30,000 deaths, including children, in his campaign against illegal drug use.
The ICC’s official charge is “the crime against humanity of murder”.
If convicted for crimes against humanity at the ICC, Duterte faces up to 30 years imprisonment – or, under exceptional circumstances, life in prison.
During trials at the ICC, suspects are held at the ICC Detention Centre in Scheveningen, The Hague, which is known also as the United Nations Detention Unit.
Having now been indicted by the ICC, Duterte joins the ranks of Bosco Ntaganda of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, indicted and convicted of murder, rape, sexual slavery, and conscription of child soldiers; Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, indicted for murder, extermination, torture, and rape; Germain Katanga, also of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, indicted and convicted for murder, pillaging, and sexual enslavement; and Joseph Kony of Uganda, indicted for 12 counts of murder, forced enlistment of children, and sexual slavery.
Omar al-Bashir and Joseph Kony both remain at large despite longstanding arrest warrants.
After conviction by the ICC, criminals are transferred to prisons in countries that have signed agreements with the ICC for this purpose, mainly the United Kingdom, Belgium, Sweden, Austria and Finland.