The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has called for the swift establishment of a Special Tribunal to hold Russia accountable for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
This is reported by Kyiv24
“The statute of the Special Tribunal regarding the crime of aggression against Ukraine is ready. This is a historic achievement not only for Ukraine but also for the entire architecture of international law. This document provides a real chance to hold accountable those who unleashed this war,” emphasized Iryna Mudra, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, on Facebook.
Statute of the Tribunal: New Approaches to Holding Aggressors Accountable
According to Iryna Mudra, the Ukrainian delegation has been working on the preparation of the tribunal’s statute for over two years. The document stipulates that no immunities will apply to representatives of the aggressor state. This means that even current leaders of the aggressor state may face indictments that the tribunal’s prosecutor will have the right to publicly announce and submit to the preliminary hearing judge. Sentences and in absentia convictions may be issued after the suspects are removed from their positions. The tribunal will have complete international jurisdiction, rather than a hybrid or national status.
An important feature of the statute is that the activities of the special tribunal do not contradict the work of the International Criminal Court but rather complement it. Investigations can be conducted in parallel, and in the event of a defendant being transferred to the ICC, proceedings in the tribunal will be suspended.
Mechanism for In Absentia Proceedings and Protection of the Rights of Captives
The document also provides for the possibility of conducting full in absentia trials, which offers a chance to obtain judicial verdicts even in the absence of the suspects in the courtroom. This particularly concerns the political and military leadership of Russia, and potentially Belarus and North Korea, except for current leaders while they remain in office.
A separate section of the resolution is dedicated to condemning the policy of ethnic cleansing that Russia systematically conducts in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
Among other important decisions of the PACE is a call for the establishment of an international mechanism for the exchange of prisoners of war based on the formula “all for all” with the participation of the International Committee of the Red Cross and neutral states. The priority is to secure the release of all Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages.
The Parliamentary Assembly also strongly condemned Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian captives, which is regarded as war crimes and crimes against humanity. According to the resolution, 95 percent of released Ukrainian prisoners of war were subjected to torture, sexual violence, or inhumane treatment during their captivity.
