Putin's War On Ukraine Is A War On Us All
Protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Photo by Flickr/CC.
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(OPINION) On Feb. 24, the world woke up to the news of Putin’s attack on Ukraine, unleashing war in the European continent without any provocation and without any credible justification.
As U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet commented, “Civilians in various parts of Ukraine were awoken by sounds of heavy bombardment and are terrified of further escalation, with many fleeing their homes. This military action clearly violates international law and puts at risk countless civilian lives. It must be immediately halted.”
Quoting the United Nations Charter, Secretary-General António Guterres said, “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” He called upon Putin to stop the military operation and bring the troops back to Russia. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and Putin continues the invasion.
The next hours have seen reports of civilian casualties, damage to civilian objects, including critical infrastructure, and other violations of human rights on the ground. This is the price Ukrainians pay for Putin’s dangerous aspirations.
The world is slowly waking up to the war unleashed by Putin and also to the threat posed to the rest of the world. A package of economic sanctions followed.
For example, the U.S. responded with sanctions on large Russian state-owned banks and oligarchs with links to Putin.
The U.K. announced its package including sanctions covering more than 100 companies and oligarchs at the heart of Putin’s regime — with sanctions today worth hundreds of billions of pounds, asset freezes and travel bans. Russian bank assets in the U.K. are to be frozen. The U.K. will ban Russian state-owned and key strategic private companies from raising finance on the U.K. financial markets. The U.K. is also to introduce new punitive restrictions on trade and export controls against Russia’s high-tech and strategic industries. Russia’s national airline Aeroflot is banned from U.K. airspace. Furthermore, the U.K. is working with allies to exclude Russia from the SWIFT financial system.
The EU announced sanctions on 27 individuals and entities playing a role in “undermining Ukrainian sovereignty.” The EU further sanctioned 351 members of the Duma who voted in favor of Russia’s recognition of the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk, the 11 who proposed it and the commanders of the Russian military. Restrictive measures include an asset freeze, a prohibition from making funds available to the listed individuals and entities and a travel ban.
Among the steps that can and must be taken are also steps toward justice. Indeed, speaking at the U.K. House of Lords, Lord Alton of Liverpool called upon the U.K. government to ensure that justice is not postponed any longer. The world has looked away from too many of Putin’s crimes.
Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. However, the ICC can investigate and prosecute international crimes perpetrated by Putin and the Russian army. In 2000, Ukraine signed the Rome Statute but did not ratify it, awaiting constitutional amendments. However, in the meantime, Ukraine took other steps to ensure that the ICC could engage. Ukraine made two special ad hoc declarations under Article 12 of the Rome Statute, giving the ICC jurisdiction over crimes perpetrated in the territory of Ukraine from November 2013 onward.
The office of the prosecutor concluded its preliminary examination in December 2020 and found that there was a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed. The next step in the judicial process is to request authorization from the pretrial chamber to open an investigation into the situation in Ukraine.
On Feb. 24, we saw how impunity for previous crimes begets further crime. The ongoing impunity for Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine materialized as war and crimes that we cannot continue to ignore.
As the Russian military is advancing and civilian objects are being attacked, thousands and thousands of people are being pushed from their homes and their region and, ultimately, forcibly displaced out of Ukraine to neighboring countries, including Poland. Poland is expecting to see an influx of millions Ukrainian refugees.
Poland is a state party to the Rome Statute. The ICC may have jurisdiction to investigate such forcible displacement of people from a non-state party to a state party, as the ICC is doing in the case of Bangladesh/Myanmar. We will be supporting the efforts to explore this option.
As Lord Alton emphasized, there is a need to prioritize the situation in Ukraine and proceed with investigations and prosecutions: “Putin and those most responsible for the crimes, including members of the Russian Duma who voted for these war crimes to be committed, need to know that beyond welcome economic sanctions their future ability to travel to any of the 123 countries which have ratified the Rome Statute will leave them open to arrest and prosecution — as the former President of Sudan, now arrested and in prison will testify.”
It is time for decisive steps to stop the war, help those affected, and protect them from further violations. It is time to put Putin on trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.
Ewelina U. Ochab is a legal researcher and human rights advocate, doctoral candidate and author of the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 U.N. reports. She works on the topic of persecution of minorities around the world. This piece was republished from Forbes with permission.