Parliament's vote an important step for accountability efforts to address Russian crimes in Ukraine
The Ukrainian Parliament took an important step when it voted this week to amend the domestic Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code to complete its ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), said Fortify Rights today. The parliament initially voted to ratify the Rome Statute on August 21, 2024, and the legislation that passed this week, on October 9, was needed to integrate the Statute’s obligations into the country's domestic legal framework.
“We warmly welcome the decisive vote of the Ukrainian Parliament, finally completing the legislative stage of Ukraine's accession to the International Criminal Court,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. “This is an essential step towards achieving justice for victims and survivors of atrocity crimes in Ukraine, although much more will need to be done to bring Putin and his criminal gang to justice.”
The bill adopted this week was submitted by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to parliament in August 2024, at the same time as the draft law on ratification of the Rome Statute. It was conceived to implement the ratification of the Rome Statute into domestic law. The President’s intent was for parliament to vote on both laws simultaneously because without adopting the implementing law, ratification would not come into domestic force.
The delay in adopting the implementing law was partly due to debates over the incompleteness of the proposed amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes of Ukraine. The bill, as adopted, does not include the entire catalog of war crimes provided for in the Rome Statute. For instance, it does not fully cover crimes related to causing disproportionate harm to the environment, the involvement of children in combat operations, or deliberate attacks on personnel engaged in peacekeeping missions under the U.N. Charter.
In addition, the bill, as adopted, still does not fully address the rights of victims of war crimes, such as their rights to compensation, restitution, and rehabilitation, as provided for in Article 68 of the Rome Statute. To overcome this, Ukraine could rely on cooperation agreements with the ICC, said Fortify Rights. Cooperation agreements play a crucial role in facilitating the effective functioning of the Court and often include provisions for witness protection.
The ICC is already investigating crimes committed during Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. Since the start of Russian aggression in Ukraine in 2014, Ukraine has given the ICC jurisdiction over Russian crimes on its territory through two separatead hocdeclarations under Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute, despite not being a full state party to the Statute. These declarations allowed the ICC to investigate crimes committed on Ukrainian territory without Ukraine having fully ratified the Rome Statute.
Almost immediately following Russia’s most recent invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, 43 ICC member states referred the situation in Ukraine to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan. In March 2022, the Prosecutor applied the Court’s jurisdiction and announced that he had opened an investigation into international crimes committed in Ukraine. The Court has since issued arrest warrants for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, his Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and the Army Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov for crimes committed during the Ukraine war.
“The bill that passed this week appears to be the minimal necessary implementation step to bring Ukraine’s laws in line with the ratification of the Rome statute itself,” said Matthew Smith. “Its entry into force finally makes Ukraine an ICC state party, more than ten years after it accepted the ICC's jurisdiction throughout the country.”
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