New York/The Hague: Today, 24 February 2022, the world has witnessed the most dramatic escalation of armed violence among States in Europe since the end of World War II. The Russian Federation announced and launched a series of military attacks into the territories of Ukraine beyond the illegally occupied Donbass region.
Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) condemns in the strongest terms today’s events as an illegal war of aggression perpetrated by a State possessing nuclear weapons and abusing of its privileged voting rights (the veto-power) in the UN Security Council, hence de facto inhibiting any form of direct international military intervention in support of the sovereign State that is victim of the aggression, Ukraine.
International Law provides that the use of military force in the territories of other States is lawful only if authorized under Chapter VII of the UN Charter or in self-defense against an armed attack or when the territorial State genuinely gives consent to military intervention.
The reported attacks on major cities of Ukraine (i.e., the capital city of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa, and Mariupol) and other measures, such as the naval blockade of the Azov Sea and the connected no-fly zone, are unjustified and unjustifiable: They represent acts of aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, as well as a crime of aggression attributable to the individual criminal responsibility of the leader(s) of the Russian Federation. Additionally, as the attacks of the Russian forces are reportedly conducted with the help of Belarus, where Russian troops have been deployed for months, the international responsibility for the acts of aggression also extends to this State, to be qualified as aggressor-State.
In addition to the International Law on State responsibility, PGA recalls that the law on individual criminal responsibility also applies to the ongoing military conflagration. In fact, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is applicable in the context of the conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, which is a continuum from the situation of unlawful occupation of Donbass and of the illegal Russian annexation of Crimea regarding which Ukraine has accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC. Hence, any inhumane conduct that may be qualified as war crimes, crimes against humanity, or acts of genocide may be investigated and prosecuted before the ICC.
As States within the UN Security Council and General Assembly, as well as within regional and transregional organizations (e.g., the European Union –EU–, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization –NATO– and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe –OSCE–) are considering new countermeasures (sanctions) against the Russian Federation in support of the territorial integrity and political independence of Ukraine, PGA calls for the following urgent policies and measures:
- Economic and business-related considerations should not prevail over the imperative to impose the most effective and immediate countermeasures (sanctions) against the Russian Federation in accordance with International Law and its norms on State responsibility and individual criminal responsibility.
- Targeted sanctions shall be imposed against the legal entities and individuals who are most influential in the decision-making process that led to the escalation of the armed conflict.
- Targeted sanctions shall include the President of the Russian Federation as an individual.
- Travel bans against individuals implicated in war crimes and other international crimes, which may be investigated before the ICC or other competent jurisdictions, shall be coordinated with the prevailing exigency to secure the arrest and surrender or, when applicable, the voluntary surrender of the said individuals, which shall be incentivized by “smart sanctions,” including conditioned assets freezing.
- Urgent measures shall be implemented to provide the broadest possible access of humanitarian agencies to the victims of the armed conflict, and refugees from Ukraine shall be given unfettered access, protection and asylum in neighboring countries and third States in accordance with International Law.
- In the absence of a UN Security Council Resolution condemning the war of aggression against Ukraine due to the abuse of the veto-power by the Russian Federation, the UN General Assembly shall take all of the necessary steps to adopt a resolution in which it should exercise its subsidiary competencies for the restoration of international peace and security as enshrined in articles 10, 11, and 12 of the UN Charter, reaffirm its principles and purposes, and impose adequate measures under International Law to remedy the internationally wrongful acts against Ukraine’s territorial integrity and political independence.
- The UN Security Council and other relevant organs of International Organizations with decision-making authority should apply the general principle of International Law that imposes that no one can adjudicate on its own dispute (“nemo judex in re sua”) and exclude the Russian Federation from deliberations regarding the ongoing armed conflict.
- The States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC should refer the situation in Ukraine to the jurisdiction of the ICC under Article 13.a of the Statute and should make their best efforts to table a draft resolution before the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Ukraine to the ICC under Article 13.b of the Statute.
- The President of Ukraine shall promulgate into law without any further delay the Bill adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in May 2021 that implements the norms of the Rome Statute and other instruments of International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law into Ukrainian Law and shall immediately ratify the Rome Statute of the ICC as its 124th State Party, hence empowering Ukraine to exercise its sovereign rights as a law-abiding nation within the Assembly of States Parties.
- All UN Member States shall exercise their right and obligation to impose any proportionate and necessary countermeasures that International Law permits against the aggressor State(s), with the exclusion of any form of illegal reprisal against civilians or other protected persons by International Humanitarian Law, in order to restore the sovereign rights of Ukraine and protect the inalienable human rights of the populations affected by the armed conflict.
