With all the news around President Donald Trump taking office, and the mass protests, controversial executive orders, and pending lawsuits that followed, it may have escaped notice that Ukraine filed suit against the Russian Federation before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on January 16 (the official Application is here). Ukraine has accused Russia of “intervening militarily in Ukraine, financing acts of terrorism, and violating the human rights of millions of Ukraine’s citizens,” following a March 2014 “referendum” in Crimea that the United Nations has condemned and that many analysts believe was held “at gunpoint.” Ukraine’s claims are premised on two multilateral treaties, both of which grant jurisdiction to the ICJ for disputes involving their interpretation or application:
- International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) (1965)
- International Convention on the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism (1999)
Ukraine’s Application to the Court presents a mix of overlapping claims, covering at once allegations of Russia’s financing of terrorism in the region, as well as its persecution of ethnic minorities within Ukraine, including the mistreatment of Crimean Tatars and the destruction of cultural property. The Application describes this as
a deliberate campaign of cultural erasure.
Ukraine also seeks immediate provisional measures (equivalent to a temporary injunction or restraining order) to prevent ongoing harm and to protect the fundamental human rights of people in Ukraine.
This new suit joins prior legal efforts by Ukraine to seek redress for events in Crimea before other international courts, including the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the European Court of Human Rights, as discussed below. Notably, in none of these cases is the legality of Russia’s use of force, per se, directly at issue, because there is no international court with jurisdiction over any claims Ukraine may have. Ukraine has, however, prosecuted some individual Russians for the crime of waging “aggressive war” under an idiosyncratic penal code provision. However, all of these international courts will be in a position to adjudicate the destructive consequences of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its intervention in eastern Ukraine.
Read the full post at Just Security.
- Publication Type:Other Writing
- Publication Date:02/02/2017