"The Rome Statute and the Restart of International Justice" was the topic of the second discussion panel of the second season of the joint project of LB.ua and EFI Group New Country.
The panel was attended by:
- Andriy Kostin, Prosecutor General of Ukraine;Andriy Kostin
- Iryna Mudra, Deputy Head of the President's Office;Iryna Mudra, Deputy Head of the President's Office
- Dmytro Lubinets, Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights;Dmytro Lubinets
- Oleksandra Matviychuk, human rights activist, head of the Centre for Civil Liberties, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize;Oleksandra Matviychuk, human rights activist, head of the Centre for Civil Liberties
- Ihor Liski, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the EFI Group's Investment Campaign.Ihor Liski
The main speakers and guests of the event discussed the consequences of the ratification of the Rome Statute; Vladimir Putin's visit to Mongolia and the lack of a quick response to violations of international law; punishment of Russian war criminals at the national and international levels; procedural protection of citizens affected by aggression and compensation; creation of a special tribunal, etc.
"Putin's visit to Mongolia has dealt a blow to the entire system of international criminal law, but it is just a blow. Let's not make a tragedy out of it. Mongolia will also feel the consequences - I am sure that the international community will not ignore this country's actions. In fact, Mongolia has jeopardised its international subjectivity. And Putin used the whole country as a tool in his geopolitical game. However, let's not forget that there are 125 ratifiers of the Rome Statute, including some countries that no one can do anything about if Putin wants to go there. ... So we will not give up, because the International Criminal Court will respond. This does not always happen as quickly as we would like it to. But there will definitely be a reaction," said Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin.
According to Iryna Mudra, deputy head of the OP, the ratification of the Rome Statute has finally removed the incorrect interpretation of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in Ukraine.
"We talked to the military leadership and ordinary soldiers and realised after three months of communication that, since the full-scale invasion, the military had been receiving false narratives about ratification and it was not explained what exactly the ratification of the Rome Statute meant after we accepted full jurisdiction in 2014-2015 with two statements by the Verkhovna Rada. And this jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court was extended to the country starting from 21 November 2013. Thus, we realised that our military lived in the understanding that without ratification, the ICC could not prosecute Ukrainian citizens for war crimes. By explaining to both the leadership and the military that such jurisdiction applied to the military even before the ratification, and that all our military were at risk of prosecution, we were able to remove most of these concerns," Mudra said.
Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets was quite categorical in his speech:
"There is no human rights protection system in the world today. It is a fiction. And we see this fiction on the territory of Ukraine," he said.
Human rights activist Oleksandra Matviychuk calls the ratification of the Rome Statute "an event of historic proportions".
"It shows that the Ukrainian state accepts as axiomatic that mass violence is not tolerated. And if the state conducts it, encourages it or fails to fulfil its obligations to investigate it, there will be an international court. This is also important in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. ...Until a special tribunal for aggression is established, the International Criminal Court is the only way for us to overcome the immunities of Putin and the other members of the trio [President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov] that they have under international law. And bring them to justice," Matviychuk said.
Ihor Liski, Head of EFI Group's Investment Campaign, considers the work on restarting international justice to be part of our victory. "It is very important to show and prove that such work is being done. We need to broadcast it not only to our international partners from the legal perspective. But also directly to the media and even on the territory of Russia. So that every officer thinks ten times when giving orders to bomb peaceful cities, rape Ukrainian women or kidnap Ukrainian children. This is part of this military response. This is part of our victory. And it should be used," the businessman said. The detailed speeches of the main speakers of the discussion panel will be published shortly on LB.ua.
