Today at 15:20
The Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution on an appeal to the UN, the parliaments and governments of its member states, the European Union, the Council of Europe regarding the creation of a special international tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, – People’s Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
The corresponding decision was supported by 283 deputies.
“The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine calls on the international community of states to use all possible and available tools and opportunities to create pressure on the political and military leadership of the Russian Federation, which will much faster force the Russian Federation to abandon the continuation of armed aggression against Ukraine, as well as to use the provisions on universal jurisdiction, in within the framework of our own criminal legislation, in order to bring to justice those guilty of committing grave international crimes on the territory of Ukraine,” the appeal says.
The Parliament also calls on the United Nations, the parliaments and governments of its member states, the European Union, and the Council of Europe to establish a special international tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, which will:
- have jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute for the commission of a crime of aggression against Ukraine, probably committed by the highest political and military leadership of the Russian Federation;
- Apply the customary international law definition of the crime of aggression in Article 8 bis of the Rome Statute of the ICC;
- have jurisdiction over natural persons exercising effective control over or directly directing the political or military actions of the state;
- have the power to issue international arrest warrants and not be limited by the absolute and/or functional immunity of Heads of State and Government and other State officials;
- have jurisdiction over all events, starting from February 2014, the beginning of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.
In addition, the Verkhovna Rada calls on the UN, the parliaments and governments of its member states, the EU, and the Council of Europe to intensify their efforts to fully support the establishment of such a special international tribunal by adopting relevant legal acts, as well as ensuring participation in its work, full cooperation with the future ad hoc international tribunal, allocating the maximum possible human and financial resources to its activities.
Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his address to the summit of the European Political Community in Prague, called for the implementation of the “peace formula” proposed by him for Ukraine.
