At an informal UN Security Council meeting For the first time, key actors seeking responsibility for atrocities committed during the war in Ukraine gathered at an informal UN Security Council meeting to facilitate the investigation of the violence linked of many Western countries. to Russia.
The hearing on Wednesday was attended by Amal Clooney, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry, chief prosecutor and human rights lawyer of Ukraine.
Ukrainian Attorney General Irina Venediktova, who has initiated more than 8,000 investigations into alleged violations of the laws and customs of war, said that “Russia’s actions are against humanity and war crimes” and the champion is “like a genocide”.
Albanian Foreign Minister Olta Jachka, who sponsored and chaired the meeting, said that as a member of the vetoing Security Council, Russia should be a guardian of global peace, but “a war of choice has begun against his neighbor “. Committing an immeasurable crime in the process ”.
French Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, Natalie Broadhurst, the second co-sponsor, said the images of atrocities that took place after the departure of Russian forces from Bucha and other areas outside Kiev is “unbearable” and can be crimes. of war.
Beth van Shack, the U.S. Ambassador to Global Criminal Justice, said the U.S. has concluded that Russia has committed war crimes, citing credible reports of people killed in the style of murder, signs of torture of bodies. and “horrific reports of sexual assault. “Against women and girls”. He said Russia’s political and military leadership and ranks were responsible.
The head of Russia’s legal mission to the United Nations, Sergei Leonidchenko, denied the allegations, saying: “What we have heard today is another series of baseless accusations and even lies full of lies, hypocrisy and fancy rhetoric. “
Russia has denied responsibility for any atrocities and has repeatedly accused Ukrainian nationalists and “neo-Nazis”.
Leonidchenko said that the Ukrainians, who are responsible for all heinous crimes, will be brought to justice. He said Russia was gathering testimony and evidence from all over Ukraine, including the besieged city of Mariupol. He said Russia planned to hold an informal council meeting on May 6 to present what he believed were “facts and not wrong”.
Other council members – Mexico, Gabon, Ghana, Brazil, India, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates – did not try to blame him. They said the investigation should establish the facts behind the killings and attacks.
China, which is close to Russia, said the cause of civilian deaths must be determined and verified. “Any allegation must be based on facts before the whole picture is known,” the Chinese diplomat said.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said a record number of 43 countries have appealed the situation in Ukraine to the courts, which are responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and prosecution for genocide. It began the investigation on March 2 and said nine other European countries were also conducting the investigation. On Monday, he said, the ICC signed an agreement for the first time for a joint investigation team in Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania.
“This is the time when we must mobilize the law and send it into the struggle, not on the side of Ukraine against the Russian Federation or on the side of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, but on the side of humanity to protect, to maintain.” To protect people … with some basic rights, ”Khan said.
Calling it the “critical stage,” he said, it’s time to follow the law and act quickly to gather evidence. He said that once the investigation was announced, he sent a group to the region and visited Ukraine twice, and would do the same.
Khan told the council that he had sent three messages to Russia but received no response and accepted Leonidchenko’s presence before the Russian spoke. “My door is open,” Khan said.
Leonidchenko criticized the ICC and argued that the court was impartial. Khan later told reporters that he was not for or against Russia or Ukraine and said the court was only interested in upholding the law.
British Ambassador Barbara Woodward said the UK would “support international efforts to ensure justice” and would provide $ 1.1 million ($ 1.25 million) as additional funding to the ICC.
Frenchman Broadhurst said his government had sent two judges and 10 investigators to join the ICC team in Ukraine and contribute an additional € 500,000 (US $ 525,000) to support his work.
Van Shaak said the United States, which is not part of the ICC, supports their investigation into atrocities in Ukraine.
Norwegian judge Eric Moses, who heads the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry, said he was filming and investigating all alleged violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, based on the work of observers. United Nations. UN human rights in Ukraine. He said he would establish relations with the ICC “in the near future” and try to reach Russia and Ukraine, victims, civil society groups, governments and others.
Moses stressed the independence of his commission and his mandate to “identify, if possible, the persons and entities responsible for violations of human rights or international humanitarian law or other crimes”.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet reiterated that war crimes can be committed and that “efforts to remedy the violations must begin now”. As of Wednesday, he said, his office had registered and verified that 2,787 civilians had been killed and 3,152 injured, a real number that was “relatively high” and rising.
Amal Clooney, who represents the Clooney Justice Foundation, urged the board not to waste the effort.
“What bothers me when I sit here is that the decisive action we saw in the first 50 days of this war turns out to be the highest point, rather than the starting point for a legal and diplomatic response – which will be your actions. … Gradually becoming a predictable pattern, a legacy of investigations, committees and reports, prosecutions and lack of convictions and sentences, politicians seek justice but fail to carry it out.
“We can’t do that,” he said.
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This story corrects the fact that the Chinese ambassador did not issue a statement in paragraph 11.
Source: Huffpost
