19-01-202309:03

Iryna Mudra: Bringing of russia to comprehensive international responsibility will be of decisive importance for the future world order

Russia’s aggression is an international crime not only against Ukraine, but also against the entire civilized world. Bringing the aggressor to justice is a joint duty of the entire international community. The participants of Ukrainian breakfast discussion – a traditional private event organized on the occasion of the Annual Meetings of the World Economic Forum (WEF) – talked about it.

“Today, Ukraine defends not only its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Ukraine defends democratic values, human rights and the rule of law for the whole world. Bringing the aggressor state of russia to comprehensive international responsibility will be of decisive importance for the future world order. This will demonstrate to any aggressive state the real legal consequences of armed aggression”, – Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Iryna Mudra noted during her online speech.

As she said, the system of holding russia to accountability must be comprehensive and includes three main pillars:

  1. The investigation of russia`s war crimes by Ukrainian criminal justice system and law enforcement bodies of the foreign states, investigation and prosecution of war crimes by ICC as well as to bring russia to justice in the courts.

Since the beginning of the full-scale aggression, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have registered and are investigating more than 64,000 criminal proceedings regarding crimes related to Russian aggression, of which about 63,000 are related to war crimes.

Also since 2014 the Government of Ukraine has submitted 5 interstate cases against the Government of the russian federation to the European Court of Human Rights. In these interstate cases Ukraine proves the responsibility of the russian federation for systematic violations of human rights and effective control over the temporarily occupied territories by russia.

Establishing the responsibility of the russian Federation will facilitate the maintenance of individual applications by citizens and legal entities against the russian federation, both in the European Court of Human Rights and in investment arbitrations, and will become the basis for considering such cases and for the applicants to collect compensation from the russian federation for the violated rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.

Another 2 cases of Ukraine against russia are concidered by the International Court of Justice.

  1. The creation of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine in order to hold russian top military and political leadership accountable for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.

Given the lack of jurisdiction of the ICC to investigate crime of aggression against Ukraine committed by russia’s leadership, Ukraine has initiated establishment of a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine.

“The creation of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine will not affect the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, but will complement its work. Holding russia accountable for aggression will demonstrate that international criminal law is effective, that international justice is effective and serves its primary goal: protects the international legal order and human rights”, – Iryna Mudra said.

  1. The recovery of reparations from the aggressor, including through creation of the international compensation mechanism, strengthening of sanctions measures and confiscation of state assets of Russia and sanctioned individuals and repurposing them for the compensation of damages to victims of russia’s war crimes and reconstruction of Ukraine.

On November 14, 2022, at the UN General Assembly, 94 countries voted in favor for the Resolution on remedy and reparations for aggression against Ukraine. So, our country expects all 94 states which supported the Resolution to become active participants in creation of the compensation mechanism in cooperation with the GoU.

As the first step of the process towards the establishment of a compensation mechanism, Ukraine seeks to create an international Register of Damage for Ukraine. It would collect information about claims and record evidence of damage, loss or injuries and other violations of international law committed by Russia in or against Ukraine, for this evidence to be used in future adjudication process.

The key to the effective operation of the compensation mechanism and the guarantee that all victims will receive fair compensation is the financial filling of the Compensation Fund. The main source for financing it is the blocked and frozen assets of the russian federation and russian sanctioned individuals.

“Therefore, it is fundamentally important for us that the frozen assets of Russia and the sanctioned persons remain blocked, are confiscated and subsequently transferred to the Compensation Fund, which will operate within the framework of the international compensation mechanism. Achieving this goal would ensure compensation payments to victims of armed aggression and prompt post-conflict recovery of Ukraine precisely at the expense of the aggressor state. In order to bring russia to material responsibility for all the damages caused, we call on our international partners to to maintain the sanctions already imposed, to continue increasing the sanctions pressure on russia and freeze the assets of the sanctioned persons”, – accentuated the Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine.

Also Iryna Mudra said that Ukraine expects that in the near future partner states will develop and adopt the necessary legal frameworks and procedures for the confiscation of such assets, their re-purposing and further transfer to the Compensation Fund, which will be established within the international compensation mechanism.