The Ukrainian president asked this Thursday to creation of a “special court” by judging the Russian invasion of Ukrainespeaking at an international conference in The Hague on responsibility for war crimes committed during the ongoing conflict.
Current judicial institutions cannot bring all the guilty to justice. Therefore, a special court is needed to judge the crimes of Russian aggression against Ukraine“, said Volodymyr Zelensky, in a video released during the international conference, which was attended by the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho.
The appeal was made shortly after the Minister of Foreign Affairs of UkraineDmytro Kuleba, have presented a similar proposal.
Kuleba also appealed to the creation of a special ‘ad hoc’ court to judge the main Russian political and military leaders for the aggression against Ukraine, alleging that the The International Criminal Court (ICC) has no jurisdiction sue Russia for this crime.
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EITHER The ICC “faces difficulties in jurisdiction over the specific crime of aggression” against Ukraine for “a number of legal reasons that, unfortunately, seems insurmountable“, he said, in a video message also broadcast at the conference promoted by the Netherlands, the ICC and the European Commission.
This ‘ad hoc’ tribunal (with a specific purpose) must be based on “the rules and approaches already applied by the ICC and established by its statute” and have a temporary jurisdiction that “covers all events since February 2014when Russia’s armed intervention in Ukraine began. after the annexation of the Crimean peninsuladetailed the head of Ukrainian diplomacy.
The special court must have jurisdiction over persons who effectively have the capacity to exercise control either direct the political or military actions of a state”, he added, stressing that “the official status of the accused, whether a head of state or another responsible, will not allow him to be exempt from his individual criminal responsibility or reduce the sentenceKuleba continued.
The ICC trial for the crime of aggression compels both Ukraine and Russia to be members of the court, but so far neither country has ratified its founding treatyTherefore, this body is limited to investigating possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine.
I think there was no more appropriate time to fill this gap in the architecture of international criminal justice”, defended the Ukrainian minister.
As for the reservations of some countries to this idea, which state that an ‘ad hoc’ tribunal can weaken the functioning of existing international tribunalsKuleba assured that the Ukraine “has no such intentions” is that he just wants “the crime of aggression by Russia against Ukraine not to go unpunished”.
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The minister considered that this request is “fair and legitimate to allow for justice and accountability” and warned that “if the perpetrators get rid of this crime, the world will go dark.”
THE The legal response to the aggression against Ukraine “must be adequate and similar to the response that the international community gave to the criminals of the Second World War. Starting a war of aggression is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime, which differs from other war crimes in that it contains in itself the accumulated evil of all of them”, Kuleba summed up.
On February 24 of this year, Russia launched a military offensive in Ukraine that has already killed more than five thousand civiliansaccording to the UN, which warns of the probability of the real number is much higher.
What is already known about the Russian invasion of Ukraine
The Russian military offensive caused the more than 16 million people fleeof which more than 5.7 million outside the countryaccording to the latest UN data.
Also according to the United Nations, 15.7 million people need humanitarian assistance in Ukraine.
THE The Russian invasion was condemned by the international community in generalwhich responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and tightening economic and political sanctions on Moscow.
Source: Observadora
