The International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA) began to operate this Monday, July 3, at the Eurojust headquarters, in The Hague, with the purpose of gathering evidence and improving the construction of possible cases for crimes against humanity against Russia, linked to the invasion of Ukraine.
First modification:
European authorities and the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, inaugurated this Monday the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA), from the Eurojust headquarters in The Hague (Netherlands).
At #Eurojust in #TheHague for the launch of the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against #Ukraine. #ICPA is a first important step to ensure full #accountability for the international crimes committed during Russia’s war of aggression against ?? pic.twitter.com/eLgXabI3oH
— Didier Reynders (@dreynders) July 3, 2023
Twitter message from the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, together with those attending the event.
This body, which according to official statements will not be a court, will have two central tasks: it will act as a center for the collection of evidence (documentary and testimonial) and investigations, and it will be the one that facilitates judicial cooperation between foreign prosecutors investigating in Ukraine. Eurojust will not have the task of collecting evidence itself, but will be a judicial coordinator at the regional level.
In this way, the authorities of each member country active in this task (Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia and Romania) will be the ones who collect the evidence of the alleged crimes committed in Ukraine and decide whether or not to share them through this Center.
“ICPA will work as an essential piece to guarantee accountability, in a complementary way to the already existing frameworks,” said the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders.
In the presentation, apart from Khan, the president of Eurojust, Ladislav Hamran; the General Prosecutor of Ukraine, Andriy Kostin; and Assistant United States Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite.
Further support for the tasks of international criminal justice
“This day is proof that the establishment of a special court for the crime of aggression is now inevitable. It will be done. Because we started our work today,” Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said at the launch of the ICPA.
The tasks of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have been limited by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, since neither of the two States ratified the Rome Statute that validates the functions of this court.
“Unfortunately, there is a major accountability gap for the crime of aggression in the international criminal justice architecture. The ICPA is one of the building blocks for reinforcing the prohibition of aggression, thus completing and strengthening this architecture,” Kostin added.
For Ukraine’s attorney general, the implementation of the new body is “a clear sign that the world is united and unwavering on the path to hold the Russian regime accountable for all its crimes.”
Despite the limitations, last March, ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes due to the “illegal deportation” of minors. This request also included the Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova.
Doubts about the legal functioning of this body
The scope, according to other analysts, will be moderated and there are legal doubts about its operation within the European bloc, as highlighted by Esther Herrera Caro, correspondent for France 24 in Brussels.
“We will have to see what the impact of this body will be. The Ukrainian president has always asked for more ambition to create a court similar to the one created in Nuremberg for Nazi crimes,” added the journalist.
Likewise, doubts about the legal operation have been on the debate agenda of the European Parliament and were part of last week’s summit of heads of state and government.
with EFE
