President's Office names possible models of special tribunal for Russian crime of aggression

Ukraine together with its allies and partners have worked out three models of establishing and launching the special tribunal for prosecuting the Russian crime of aggression.

Source: Andrii Smyrnov, Deputy Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine, on Facebook, as reported by European Pravda

The first model to be considered is the creation of a special tribunal based on Ukraine's treaty with the UN which approves the corresponding resolution of the UN General Assembly. The other option is the creation of a special tribunal on the basis of the multilateral open international treaty between the states of the civilised world.

The third model is the creation of a special tribunal as the court which will work in accordance with the Ukrainian law and Ukrainian legislation, with involvement of the international elements for establishing and launching it (international judges and prosecutors, location in Europe, international support).

"To put it shortly, the first two options are acceptable and will truly demonstrate the world’s readiness to execute solid legal force against particular international criminals. The third hybrid option contains risks of narrowing the legal assessment of the ongoing aggression to the level of ‘international conflict’," Smyrnov explained.

He called for the creation of a "territorially vast international institution of responsibility for aggression with the highest legitimacy and recognition level".

"This is how we will deal with all other contentious issues, including personal and functional immunities of the officials of the aggressor country," he believes.

Some countries and organisations, specifically Ukraine, are calling upon the international community to create the special international tribunal for investigating war crimes committed by Russia during its invasion of Ukraine. At the end of January, the representatives of 20 countries gathered in Prague at the meeting of the group entrusted with creating such a special tribunal.

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