atrocities committed in cities such as Bucha and Borodianka, After the withdrawal of the Russian army, which for weeks had acted as a shield against the advance of the Russian Army in Kiev, it shocked the world that they tracked down the bodies of unarmed civilians, some of whom were handcuffed and with clear indications of their execution. Russian Army. The Ukrainian government directly blamed Moscow and Russia said it was a “order”, while at the same time there were many voices demanding that these events be prosecuted in international courts as follows. war crimes. Even voices talking about something got louder. genocide.
But despite the great turmoil this discovery has caused, adding to the brutal siege of Mariupol by the bombing of hospitals, or the indiscriminate attack on a train station in Kramatorsk where hundreds of civilians were waiting to board a train to escape, some experts note that those responsible for the massacres are difficult to investigate and subsequently prosecute. It will take years, and it may not even be completed.
There are currently a number of crimes punishable by the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Rome Statute adopted in 1998. harms humanitythis implies committing systematically and on a large scale attacks on civilian population (except military). Then there are crimes defined as war crimes individual responsibility and murder and sexual violence in war situations. And two more were added: genocide, perpetrated when intent to destroy a national, ethnic, or religious group is condemned, and the crime of aggression, which was last recognized by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2018 and is planned for when. There is an opposing attacker sovereignty, territorial integrity or independence of another State.
All of this, of course, has to be proven, beginning with the collection of public testimonies and testimonies of survivors and witnesses, as well as evidence that can now include both satellite imagery and photographs and digital material on the ground. spread on social networks and media. A little NGO They use Apps so the population can collaborate and document crimes.
town to town
This is also the case of Ukrainian researchers. He travels from town to town to gather evidence and talk to his people, working with coroners on medical reports. According to the ‘Washington Post’, Ukraine’s Attorney General has deployed 50,000 people from different government agencies across the country in hopes of using their evidence for a war crimes trial against Vladimir Putin and the forces sent to invade Ukraine. .
Both Ukrainian and international experts confirm what they think are “elements that confirm the commission of these crimes”. Professor of International Law Sergei Petukhov and former Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine. Attorney I, “war crimes were clearly committed in Ukraine and technology is helping”Rene Victoria Massimino, International Law expert and co-founder of the Lemkin Institute for the Prevention of Genocide.
“In the case of the crime of aggression, the President of Russia (Vladimir Putin) has publicly announced his intentions in Ukraine, and the UN General Assembly has condemned it,” Petukhov warns, but warns that any process could be prolonged for years “especially if the war does not stop”. “There are hundreds of victims”, He insists, saying that making a call for him is not excluded either. Russian soldiers came to testify in exchange for protection.
With the support of forty countries, the ICC prosecutor’s office launched an investigation into crimes committed in Ukraine last March. However, there are some big ‘buts’ The possibility of prosecuting crimes committed in Ukraine in an international court or blaming Putin.
The first lies in the complex task of determining which court is more likely to succeed. In fact, the Kremlin revoked its signing of the Rome Statute in 2016, and that’s in case it’s an international arrest warrant, its citizens can only be detained in countries that accept jurisdictionNever in Russia.
Kyiv approval
Ukraine is also not a State that signed the Rome Statute, so the ICC prosecutor has to approve Kiev, however, It has already happened in the past, because after the invasion of Crimea in 2014 it accepted its jurisdiction.. However, it is difficult to foresee what would happen if, for example, a Ukrainian citizen accused of killing captured Russian soldiers was – allegedly – accused of violating the law of the Russian Federation. treatment of prisoners of war.
Another option is the creation of a specific international criminal court, as requested by the Franco-British jurist Philippe Sands, professor at University College London. An example is the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). But in this case, Political support from the international community should be broad, stresses lawyer Massimino. “The problem is that there has to be a lot of political support, because creating an ‘ad hoc’ tribunal means recognizing the ICC’s major failings,” says Massimino.
A third alternative is to bring complaints to the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has a mission to resolve disputes between States. However Moscow He has already warned that this body also thinks it has no jurisdiction, and there is no consensus among experts as to whether this court has jurisdiction.