2023-05-17 21:19:02
In its fight to judge, punish and make Russia pay, Ukraine has won a new battle. The Council of Europe adopted, on Wednesday 17 May, the creation of a “damage register” of war caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, during a summit organized in Iceland. The pan-European organization thus takes the first step towards the creation of a future “international mechanism” reparations for the victims of Russian aggression.
The creation of this “register” was adopted by 40 of the 46 members of the Council of Europe, plus Japan, the United States, Canada and the European Union. Without blocking it, Turkey, Serbia, Hungary, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Bosnia and Herzegovina rejected the agreement.
Established in The Hague, at the request of the Dutch who claim the title of “ capital of international justice”this register should make it possible to register claims for compensation from Ukrainians and the State of Ukraine, following the damages and losses suffered since the beginning of the Russian invasion, on February 24, 2022. An additional office will also be open in Kiev.
‘Make Russia pay’
“Russia must pay”said Ukrainian Minister of Justice Denys Maliouska, the amount “is too important to be paid for by the taxpayers”, he assured during a meeting with the press broadcast on the Internet. At the beginning of March, the World Bank estimated the cost of the future reconstruction of the country at some 380 billion euros. The registry could help refine the various assessments. But above all, its creation is only a step towards a “international compensation mechanism”. And it is this mechanism that will have to assess and then settle the claims for compensation filed with the register.
With what means? kyiv is proposing that frozen Russian assets be used, Prime Minister Denys Chmyhal said in a statement. But international law does not allow the seizure of such property, so the right formula remains to be found. “The establishment of a comprehensive compensation mechanism will ensure that Russia pays full reparations to Ukraine”, said the Prime Minister. And this “in accordance with international law, including through its assets located abroad ». As with other interviewees, Oleksandra Drik of the NGO Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties felt that this would be the only way to“make Russia pay”.
Volodymyr Zelensky had approved the principle of a reparation mechanism by discovering the corpses strewing the streets of Boutcha, at the beginning of April 2022. He had also given the green light to the idea of a special tribunal to try the crime of aggression. For more than a year, kyiv has been trying to convince. Paris, London and Washington are not in favor of it, even if the idea seems to be advancing. The Russian president cannot be prosecuted for the crime of aggression by the International Criminal Court which, on the other hand, issued an arrest warrant against him in March for war crimes. Only a special international court, based on a broad consensus, which is absent today, would make it possible to lift Vladimir Putin’s immunity and prosecute him for “assault”.
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