Civil society organizations call for the signing of the position paper “Accountability for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine”

The Regional Center for Human Rights, Ukraine Without Torture, Truth Hounds, and the Center for Civil Liberties have developed a position paper on Accountability for the Crimes of Aggression against Ukraine and invite other civil society organizations in Ukraine and abroad to sign it. The paper calls for Russia and the Republic of Belarus to be held accountable for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.

The undersigned are in agreement with the provisions of the document, namely, that

• the Russian Federation’s military and political leadership has committed an ongoing crime of aggression against Ukraine since 2014;
• the military and political leadership of the Republic of Belarus has also been committing and is complicit in the continuing crime of aggression by making its territory available to the Russian Federation to wage aggression against Ukraine and by otherwise assisting in committing the crime of aggression since February 2022; 
• the crime of aggression, according to the decision of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, is considered a “supreme international crime”, which constitutes the “evil of the whole” and enabled the commission of other international crimes against civilians, committed on a large scale and systematically on Ukraine’s territory;
• accountability of the military and political leadership of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus for the crime of aggression against Ukraine is a requirement of international law, a demand of Ukrainian society and the signatories of these principles, and should be an inevitable consequence of any international crime;
• accountability for the crime of aggression, in order to prevent its recurrence in the future and to compensate certain victims of an international crime, should be a demand of the international community as a whole.

And other equally important declarations. 

The authors of the document are of the opinion that there is a need for consolidation of efforts in support of such decisions:

1. The mechanism of responsibility for the crime of aggression against Ukraine should, in the absence of any authorized bodies, be of ad hoc status and work in the name of the entire international community, that is, overcome the immunity of the military and political leadership of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus under international law.
2. In order to avoid the need for the creation of similar ad hoc mechanisms in the future, the International Criminal Court’s restrictions on the prosecution of perpetrators of the crime of aggression under the Rome Statute should be lifted, and the UN should be reformed to enable an effective response to violations of international peace and security.
3. The first attempt to overcome impunity for international crimes on a global scale were the International Military Tribunals after World War II. At the same time, the international community should take into account the current evolving international law. Concluding an international treaty to establish a mechanism that would be supported by the entire international community could help address this.
4. One of the ways to achieve the support of the entire international community, given the present unwillingness of the UN Security Council to react adequately to the violation of international peace and security, may be to use the UN General Assembly to formulate an international response to the crime of aggression by the military and political leadership of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus.
5. The mechanism of accountability for the crime of aggression against Ukraine can be supported by the international community as a whole through a vote on a UN General Assembly resolution authorizing the UN Secretary-General to sign an international treaty with other states on behalf of the UN for the establishment of an ad hoc mechanism.

And other necessary steps for establishing justice.

You can read and sign the entire document by clicking here.