How Would Those Accused Of Ukraine War Crimes Be Prosecuted

Such images have contributed to a growing global consensus that Russia must be held accountable for its war crimes in Ukraine. “The strong men of the world are watching like crocodiles. We must show tyrants around the world that the rule of law is stronger than the rule of arms,” ​​said David Crane, a veteran of many international war crimes investigations. Even as the conflict rages, a huge mechanism is being built to collect and preserve evidence of possible violations of international war laws written after World War II. Less than a month after Vladimir Putin ordered the first bombs dropped on his neighbor, the United States said Russian forces were committing war crimes in Ukraine. However, it is not clear who will be accountable and how. Here’s a look at what war crimes are and what options are available to bring those responsible to justice. WHAT ARE WAR CRIMES? A war crime is a violation of the laws of war. While the architecture of international criminal law has been built for decades, the idea is simple. “If there is no military reason to aim for something, it is a war crime. “If you just shoot like ‘Mad Max Thunderdome,’ then it’s a war crime,” Crane said. The basic principles of international humanitarian law are enshrined in the Geneva Conventions, most of which came into force after World War II, and in the Rome Statute, established by the International Criminal Court in 1998. They provide protection to civilians in times of war, as well as to prisoners of war and the wounded. Possible war crimes reported in Ukraine: widespread destruction of people’s homes, shootings of civilians as they evacuate through safe corridors, targeting of hospitals, use of indiscriminate weapons such as cluster bombs in civilian areas, attacks on nuclear power plants or basic needs such as food and water. But intention matters. The destruction of a hospital alone is not evidence of a war crime. Prosecutors would have to prove that the attack was deliberate or at least reckless. Crimes against humanity, which are codified in the statutes of many international criminal courts, occur when a state launches a widespread or systematic attack on civilians that includes murder, deportation, torture, disappearances or other inhumane acts. The mass mobilization of Ukrainian citizens to fight the Russian invaders could complicate the case against Putin. Russia could try to use the blurred distinction between civilian and militant as an excuse for attacks on civilian areas. Some examples of recent convictions: In 2012, the International Criminal Court sentenced warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo to retire and recruit children under the age of 15 to fight in an ethnic conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is serving a 14-year prison sentence. Radovan Karadžić, president of Republika Srpska, a self-proclaimed Serb republic in Bosnia, has been convicted of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide – with the most notorious killing of more than 7,000 people in Srebrenica since 1995. the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. —Jean-Paul Akayesu, a mayor convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity – including rape – and incitement to commit genocide in Rwanda’s ethnic bloodbath in 1994. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sentenced him to life imprisonment. imprisonment. WHAT IS THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT? The Hague-based International Criminal Court can prosecute people for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggressive crime. The court has jurisdiction over its 123 member countries. Ukraine is not among them, but has ceded jurisdiction to the ICC. On February 28, ICC Prosecutor General Karim Khan announced that he would investigate the suspected atrocities in Ukraine, after 39 member states asked him to do so without precedent. Since then, more states have signed this request. “There is a reasonable basis for believing that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine,” Khan said at the time. There are significant limitations to what the ICC can do. It does not have the power to investigate Russia over what judges at the Nuremberg tribunal after World War II called the “supreme international crime,” the crime of aggression – the decision to wage a ruthless, unprovoked war against another. country, something international lawyers say would be the easiest way for Putin to be held accountable. This is because Russia, like the United States, is not part of the ICC. When the ICC’s statutes were amended to include the crime of assault, the United States, Russia and China pushed – and took – a step to protect citizens of countries that have not signed the court from prosecution for this charge. The UN Security Council may bypass this vote by referring the matter to the ICC, but Russia has a seat on the Security Council and could easily oust any such initiative. Another limitation of the ICC is that the court cannot try individuals in absentia. “There will be no trial in Putin’s ICC until he is naturally present in the courtroom,” said David Schaefer, who was Large’s first US ambassador to war crimes and led the US delegation to talks on its establishment. International Criminal Court. . However, the ICC could prosecute Putin even if he remained in Moscow and issued an international arrest warrant, Schaefer said. This would severely curtail Putin’s travels abroad and damage his position both at home and abroad. HAVE ALREADY BEEN LAWSUIT AGAINST RUSSIA FOR ITS ACTIONS IN UKRAINE? Yes. On March 1, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg called on Russia to stop attacking civilians and bombing people’s homes, hospitals and schools, and to start providing safe evacuation routes and access for humanitarian aid. Then, on March 16, the UN Supreme Court, the International Court of Justice, ordered Russia to suspend military operations in Ukraine. Both courts deal with violations by states, not individuals. Russia simply ignored them. “There is no international police or international military force that can support any decision of an international court,” said Ivan Lishchyna, an adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice who helped Ukraine bring its case to the European Court of Human Rights. “It is not that you are receiving a crisis and everything is done peacefully and quietly and everyone is being punished for violating international law. It’s a lot more complicated. ” Many Ukrainians, including Lishchyna, would like to see Russia pay for its violations and cover the enormous cost of repairing the damage caused by its bombs. “If I was compensated, I would consider myself doing something good in my life,” Lishchyna said. The ECtHR could order Russia to pay compensation. But the only leverage the ECHR would have if Russia had not paid would have been to exclude it from the Council of Europe – something that had already happened on 16 March. The ICJ could also order Russia to pay reparations, but the UN Security Council – where Russia has a permanent seat and a veto – will have to enforce the decision. Scholars, prosecutors and politicians have begun debating whether Russian assets frozen under global sanctions could be used in the future to pay compensation to Ukraine. CAN OTHER COUNTRIES PROSECUTE RUSSIAN OFFICIALS FOR WAR CRIMES, EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT IMMEDIATELY? Yes. Poland, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, France, Slovakia, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland all launched independent investigations into Russia’s activities in Ukraine in the first month of the conflict. They can do so in the legal sense of “universal jurisdiction”, which allows countries to use domestic courts to prosecute individuals for serious violations of international law, such as crimes against humanity, torture and war crimes – even if committed abroad by foreign perpetrators against foreign victims. This approach has worked in the past. So far, the only convictions of Syrian government officials for atrocities committed during the country’s long-running civil war have been handed down by German courts. Courts in other European countries have also convicted members of armed groups in Syria, including Islamic State fighters, of crimes committed during the war. During the first month of Russia’s war against Ukraine, Polish prosecutors said they had collected about 300 witness statements from refugees who had fled to the border. In March, Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine agreed to set up a joint international investigative team into Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Efforts continue to expand the scope of this cooperation. While the ICC usually only judges a handful of high-profile cases, prosecutions in national courts can throw a wider network and hold more individuals accountable. But they also have a limitation: Residents of heads of state, such as Putin, and senior officials, such as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, generally have immunity from prosecution in other countries, said Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New University. York and former specialist. Advocate at the Ministry of Defense. “This probably calls into question the independent national jurisdictions of Germany, Poland, etc. “To take Putin, Lavrov and maybe others,” Goodman said. “But many other senior Russian officials could be prosecuted.” DOES UKRAINE PROSECUTE RUSSIAN WAR CRIMES? Yes. of Ukraine …