21st SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY OF STATES PARTIES
Date 08 December 2022
Name of the Event: Strengthening International Justice: Challenges and Opportunities in the Case of Ukraine (co hosted by Media Initiative for Human Rights, Renaissance International Foundation, Truth Hounds, Ukraine 5AM Coalition, Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group (ULAG) and Zmina Human Rights Center)
Report by: Kelly van Eeten, Senior Research Associate, PILPG-NL, and Kateryna Kyrychenko, Program Manager, PILPG
Highlights:
At the moment, active war is ongoing in Ukraine. Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, as well as many Ukrainian cities, are in the dark due to the grave damages of the Ukrainian energy system caused by continuous Russian shellings of Ukrainian infrastructure. Most of the artillery attacks by Russians on Ukrainian territories are being done indiscriminately. Besides the shellings, different forms of war crimes are being documented in the liberated Ukrainian territories: attacks on Ukrainian cultural sites, illegal imprisonment, torture, using civilians as human shields, sexual and gender-based violence, and enforced disappearances.
The scale of war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine is striking: currently there are 60,000 cases of war-related crimes registered by Ukrainian prosecutors since the beginning of full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022; and there are still 30,000 cases opened from 2014. The national system is overburdened and international support to reach accountability is crucial.
Speakers:
Moderator: Roman Romanov, International Renaissance Foundation
Olga Reshetylova, Media Initiative for Human Rights (member of UA5AM Coalition)
Nadia Volkova, Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group (member of UA5AM Coalition)
Natialia Okhotnikova, Human Rights Centre ZMINA (member of UA5AM Coalition)
Roman Avramenko, Truth Hounds NGO (member of UA5AM Coalition)
Summary of the Event:
Mr. Roman Romanov from the International Renaissance Foundation, who was moderating the panel, began the conversation with an introduction to what will be discussed and the Ukraine 5:00 AM Coalition (UA5AM). The coalition was created after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 (its name stems from the time when the first bombings of Ukraine started on 24 February 2022). He highlighted that, at the moment, active war is ongoing in Ukraine. Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, as well as many Ukrainian cities, are in the dark right now due to the grave damages of the Ukrainian energy system caused by continuous Russian shellings of Ukrainian infrastructure.
Further, Mr. Roman Avramenko, Head of NGO Truth Hounds, which has been involved in documentation of war crimes in different contexts around the world and is currently documenting war crimes on the ground in all Ukrainian regions, reported that atrocities in Ukraine have been happening since 2014 when Russia occupied Ukrainian Crimea and parts of the territories in Donbass. He then pointed out tha due to the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, atrocities started happening on a much larger scale in Ukraine - many people are being wounded or killed as a result of bombings and artillery shellings. Mr. Avramenko mentioned that the full destruction of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in the South of Ukraine by Russia is the most well-known case by the international community, however, there are many other settlements nearby Mariupol not covered in the world media that face the same circumstances and are being severely damaged by continuos shellings and bombings on daily basis. For example, after the liberation of the city of Kherson by the Ukrainian army, the Russians started to shell the city with weapons in their possession, including cluster munition. He noted that most of the attacks by Russians are being done indiscriminately and that, besides the shellings, different forms of war crimes are being documented in the liberated Ukrainian territories: attacks on Ukrainian cultural sites, illegal imprisonment and torture, using civilians as human shields, sexual and gender-based violence, and enforced disappearances. Mr Avramenko stressed how large the scale of the war in Ukraine is: reportedly, approx 1000 civilians are being killed each month due to indiscriminate shellings and bombings.
Ms. Olga Reshetylova, Media Initiative for Human Rights (member of UA5AM Coalition), which documents war crimes and conducts journalistic investigations, reported that, after the liberation of the Northern regions of Ukraine from the Russian army, it was discovered that many Ukrainians have been captured by Russian soldiers and forcibly deported to Russia via specially established ‘filtration camps’ in the territory of Belarus. She noted that cases of enforced disappearances on the occupied territories are extremely widespread and that there is absolutely no access to the information on conditions of filtration camps in Belarus and Russia, and detention facilities in Russia. As reported by NGOs, detained and forcibly displaced people are being kept in inhumane conditions and are being subjected to torture. A special issue of concern is the enforced deportation of Ukrainian children and women, many of whom are pregnant, breastfeeding, and are being separated from their children.
Then, Ms. Natialia Okhotnikova, Human Rights Centre ZMINA (member of UA5AM Coalition), made an intervention on the wide-spread cases of enforced disappearances and torture of activists, journalists, representatives of local authorities, and even drivers who provided humanitarian help. As active members of the society, who are protecting their values and rights to be Ukrainian, they are being specially targeted. Ms. Okhotnikova stressed the point that it is linked to Russia's intention to destroy the Ukrainian nation as a whole.
M.s Nadia Volkova, Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group (member of UA5AM Coalition), talked about universal jurisdiction as a possible avenue for accountability and justice that might yield best results for the victims of war crimes in Ukraine.
During the question and answer moment, the audience and the panelists discussion reparations for victims. There is an initiative from the Ukrainian government to pursue repeations, however, the mechanism has not been established yet as discussion on the sources of funding are ongoing and the Russian frozen assets are not yet able to be spent. Panelists also noted that compensations are not actually a priority of the victims, but that justice and accountability for the crimes is the main need.
Audience also raised the issue of how to the international community could support Ukrainian civil society. The panelists responded that the first step would be to help Ukraine de-occupy its territories. War crimes committed in Ukraine now are a result of the lack of reaction of the international community and impunity of Russia has enjoyed in the past (not only in Ukraine, but also in other contexts - Georgia, Chechnya, Syria). Panelists highlighted that there are many misconceptions that stem from the wrong understanding that war crimes would stop if there would be peace. There is no sustainable peace without justice and accountability is crucial. Mutual legal assistance global initiatives might be an option to reach accountability.
Another question related to the collaboration between Ukrainian civil society and the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine and what are the perspectives on national-level prosecutions. The panelists noted that Ukrainians realize that the majority of the burden of prosecutions of war crimes committed in Ukraine lay on the shoulders of local Ukrainian investigators and prosecutors. UA5AM focuses on collaboration with national law enforcement agencies by data exchange. However, it was noted that the scale of the Russian war crimes is extremely large and the national system is overburdened: currently there are 60,000 cases of war-related crimes registered by Ukrainian prosecutors since the beginning of full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022; and there are still 30,000 cases launched since 2014. Ukraine’s case demonstrates the need to create a new rapid global response system to a crisis like this to avoid future crisis such as the one in Ukraine. Panelists mentioned universal jurisdiction as a possible pathway for that.
Laslty, Mr. Romanov, concluded the discussion with the following messages for the international community:
Competition of numerous international organizations undermine the efficiency of great efforts that are being taken to support Ukraine.
Lack of reaction of the International Committee of Red Cross, despite its mandate allowing access to detention facilities and monitoring the conditions of detention of prisoners of war (or, rather, illegally displaced Ukrainians to the territory of Russia) was flagged as a huge issue that undermines the credibility of international response.
Lack of political will of the Ukrainian Government to ratify the Rome Statute was also mentioned as an issue; the international community can help push the Ukrainian Government to do that.