To ensure that atrocities like the one in Bucha, Ukraine, do not happen again, it is important that those responsible are held accountable for war crimes. Is a special court needed to try Putin?
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights defended in May that those responsible for the executions, torture and disappearances of civilians in Ukraine should be brought to justice. “War crimes must be investigated,” the United Nations Secretary-General said in April, impressed by what he saw in Bucha and Irpin.
The Russian Federation must cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s investigation by accounting for the devastation of the country. “The investigation has started,” the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said in March.
There is no doubt that those directly and indirectly responsible for the massacres in Ukraine should be brought to justice. However, it is yet to be determined when and before what kind of court they will have to appear, including Putin. And something fundamental lingers: how to prevent crimes and violations as weapons of war. No more murders or atrocities like in Bucha.
“War crimes” are all acts (murder, torture and other forms of violence) against the civilian population. The International Criminal Court has jurisdiction under the Rome Statute to judge such conduct, including crimes against humanity, genocide and acts contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Convention.
Would a special court be needed to try Putin? A trial like Nuremberg? Since February, debates have focused on the scale of the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine. It is an aggression and a crime against peace, the Declaration in favor of a special tribunal states. The document was signed by Gordon Brown – former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom -, lawyers, professors and writers such as Javier Cercas.
The main argument of Philippe Sands, one of the signatories, a lawyer and professor of international law at University College London, is that the International Criminal Court cannot try the crime of aggression committed by a state that has not ratified the Rome Statute. Therefore, the work of the International Criminal Court will have to be completed so that the aggression and atrocities ordered by Putin do not go unpunished.
Another argument that has been advanced for years, after the massacres and genocide in Bosnia, is that more attention should be paid to the victims than to the perpetrators. It’s the “paradigm of atrocities,” as Claudia Card called it.
In practice, this means that the emphasis is on prevention and protection of next of kin and victims. It is compatible with the punishment of war criminals, but they usually do not act on their own initiative. In the armed forces there are orders and a chain of command.
“Atrocities” are acts of great cruelty, brutal and inhumane. The victims suffer serious damage, usually irreparable. Therefore, in wars there must be certain limits. They are mentioned in the Additional Protocol to the 1977 Geneva Convention: respect for international law, a type of weapon, treatment of prisoners of war and the population, etc.
The protection of civilians in wartime was already addressed in the Geneva Convention of 1949, because the brutal behavior of combatants causes enormous suffering to non-combatants. The convention explicitly referred to the protection of women against rape, forced prostitution and other attacks. Sexual violence, human trafficking and gender-based persecution are still weapons widely used by militaries and armed groups to inflict terror on the population.
Data on the situation in Ukraine confirm that these atrocities are routinely committed in Russian-occupied territories, according to a recent United Nations report.
Interventions to end these cruel practices can be of two types: the effective protection of the civilian population by states or international organizations and the prevention of risks. In 2008, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1820 condemning sexual violence as a tactic in armed conflict: it is a crime against humanity. In 2014, the United Nations presented the framework for preventing atrocities, with warning systems and risk indicators.
In 2018, the International Committee of the Red Cross went a step further and advocated that socialization processes in the armed forces remove the incentives for violence against civilians. It should not be understood as a “policy” or as a mechanism of internal coherence.
In 2022, we must not only bring to justice those responsible for atrocities, but also intervene in the conditions that make war crimes possible, by setting up protection and prevention systems. No more massacres like in Bucha. Never again.
This article was published in ‘The conversation
Source: La Verdad
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