21 September 2022 – International Day of Peace
8.30 am – 10 am (EDT) / 14.30h – 16h (CET)
Objectives:
The crime of aggression is not only one of the four core crimes under International Law defined by the Rome Statute’s preamble as the most serious crimes of concern to the International Community as a whole but is also a crime that creates the conditions for the perpetration of the other atrocities, namely, war crimes, crimes against humanity and, at times, even genocide. This is the tragic scenario of the war in and against Ukraine, triggered by a full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation on February 24, 2022. An aggressive war (an act of aggression) is always the consequence of the criminal conduct of the leaders who plan, order, and execute an illegal war.
On International Day of Peace, this event aimed to shed light on those who are the victims of the crime of aggression, whose two-fold characteristic is that, on the one hand, aggression represents the gravest violation of the territorial integrity and political independence of a State. On the other, aggression brings about immense suffering and harm, including the death, of a multitude of individuals, including (i) civilians of the unlawfully attacked territories, (ii) members of the armed forces of the victim-State(s), as well as (iii) the ordinary soldiers and other subordinates of the aggressor-State who are sent to die in the battlefield in the name of an aggressive war-plan.
Organizers:
International Center for MultiGenerational Legacies of Trauma (ICMGLT) and Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA).
Moderators
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Panelists
To know more:
If you want to learn more about the crime of aggression and its history, whose roots are in both the crimes against the peace adjudicated at the Nuremberg Trial and the progressive development of victims’ rights after WWII, please visit the website of the ICMGLT and watch one of the last interviews given a year ago by Benjamin Ferencz, the last living Nuremberg Prosecutor, in dialogue with Dr. Yael Danieli.
If you want to know more about the proposal to unlock the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court on the crime of aggression, including on the recent war of aggression by the leader(s) of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, please see here the summary of the PGA proposal to “amend the amendments” to the Rome Statute on the ICC jurisdiction on the crime of aggression.
