(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
The wheels of justice: establishing a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-06-26
(This post originally appeared on my Patreon blog Letters from Kyiv. You can sign up free of charge).
Ever since the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine, and, particularly, after the start of Russia's large-scale invasion in 2022, there has been a question about what international law can do to stop and resolve this conflict.
It appeared that, in fact, not so much.
The post-WWII international law system, in the form of the United Nations, failed to deal with the conflict.
The UN Charter of 1945 (signed by Ukraine, but not by Russia/Moscovia), clearly prohibited unprovoked military aggression of one state against another (Article 2). However, there was a problem with the mechanisms of enforcement of that rule.
While the majority of the UN members condemned Moscovian aggression and demanded an immediate withdrawal of the Russian forces from Ukraine, the privileged status of the Russian Federation as a permanent member of the law enforcement body of the UN - the Security Council (SC) - blocked any genuinely international action against the aggressor. The presence of Communist China as a permanent member of the SC did not help either.
Even purely legal action in the main body of the legal resolution of disputes between the nations of the world - the International Court of Justice (ICJ) - was inaccessible for Ukraine, as a victim of the Moscovian military aggression. The rules of the ICJ provide that it is not a real "court" having default jurisdiction over all violations of international law, but more of an arbitration tribunal, which can only look at the case if both parties agree to its jurisdiction. Needless to say, Russia was not willing to submit its dispute with Ukraine to the ICJ.
(It has to be mentioned that independent Ukraine did have a territorial dispute with one of its neighbours before - Romania put forward a claim for the now world-famous Snake Island in the Black Sea. Both parties, as civilised nations, agreed to submit the dispute to the International Court of Justice and subsequently complied with the ICJ's decision of 2009.
But Moscovia, of course, ignored this path of peaceful and law-based dispute resolution and decided to reach its goals through the bloody invasion of its neighbouring nation.)
As the current Russian state ideology, public rhetoric, the publicly announced grounds and goals of the war, and the way of conducting Russia's war in Ukraine remarkably reminds of the Nazi Germany ideology and practices, an idea of a special international tribunal like a post-WWII Nuremberg Tribunal immediately came into discussion.
It was particularly relevant since, while there was an international court - a relatively newly-established International Criminal Court - that could look into Russian war crimes, there was no court to look at the core crime of this war - the crime of starting the war, or, as it is officially called, the crime of aggression.
(Notably, despite the initial vision and the name of the court, the International Criminal Court is not fully international, as many large and influential states of the world do not recognise its jurisdiction, including the United States of America, the People's Republic of China, and the Russian Federation).
In this connection, the Council of Europe took the lead to establish and administer the special tribunal (do not mistake the Council of Europe with the European Union, although many countries are members of both organisations).
Below is a summary of yesterday's official press release of the Council of Europe:
On June 25, 2025, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, signed an agreement on the establishment of a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, including the Statute of the Special Tribunal.
A day before, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, composed of representatives of its 46 member states, authorised Secretary General Berset to sign the agreement.
“Ukraine and the Council of Europe have signed an agreement to establish the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine. This historic signature reminds us that international law must apply to all — with no exceptions, and with no double standards,” said Secretary General Alain Berset. “This is a tribunal to judge between victims and aggressors, between impunity and accountability, because without accountability, there can be no lasting peace for Ukraine and Europe as a whole. “
Any nation of the world can join the new tribunal by joining an Enlarged Partial Agreement (EPA) on the management of the Special Tribunal.
The crime of aggression refers to the decision to use armed force against another state, in violation of the United Nations Charter. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has the jurisdiction to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Ukraine. However, the ICC cannot currently examine the crime of aggression in this case due to jurisdictional limitations for the crime of aggression. The Special Tribunal will fill this gap.
The establishment of the Special Tribunal was requested by the Ukrainian authorities on 13 May 2025 and endorsed by the annual meeting of the Council of Europe foreign ministers in Luxembourg the following day.
Ukraine, a member state since 1995, remains the Council of Europe’s top priority, as reflected in the organisation’s work on the Register of Damage – which has already received more than 34,000 claims, and ongoing efforts to establish both a Claims Commission and the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression.
The European Court of Human Rights is the only international court adjudicating human rights violations in the context of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Recommended additional reading:
FAQ on the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine
Altogether, the world - and Europe in particular - has become one step closer to investigating and prosecuting the Russian war against Ukraine on the grounds and in the spirit of universally accepted rules of international law.
However, we must remember, that the Nuremberg Tribunal became possible only after the full defeat and unconditional surrender of the Nazi Germany. To give a chance to the lawyers to do their work, Russia must first be defeated on the battlefield and made to accept the jurisdiction of the new tribunal.
If you want international peace and justice to prevail, help Ukraine win.
(As a reminder, here is my extensive list of the hand-picked ways you can help).
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/26/2330183/-The-wheels-of-justice-establishing-a-Special-Tribunal-for-the-Crime-of-Aggression-against-Ukraine?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
