In mid-March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin on charges of ordering the illegal deportation of children in occupied parts of Ukraine to Russia. But the ICC operates on the basis of the Rome Statute, which Moscow has not ratified, meaning that Russia doesn't recognize the court's jurisdiction. More than once, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the creation of an international tribunal to investigate and prosecute the crime of aggression. Officials in the United States and the European Union have expressed support for this initiative, and the U.S. Senate is already considering a plan to form an international judicial body that could hold Russian officials responsible for crimes against humanity. Twenty-six Russian lawyers, legal scholars, and human rights defenders are joining in a declaration to endorse President Zelensky's proposal, denouncing Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an act of aggression and expressing their readiness to aid this investigation in any way possible. The group below signed the Brussels Declaration in early June, and Meduza is publishing the text and list of endorsements below.
BRUSSELS DECLARATION
Versions in Ukrainian and Russian
The aggressive war launched by Russia’s regime against Ukraine shattered international peace and security in Europe and undermines respect for human rights and international law. We strongly condemn this illegal war that the Kremlin continues to wage in defiance of decisions of the two principal organs of the United Nations: the General Assembly and the International Court of Justice. Furthermore, we note the findings of the International Independent Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine that the Russian side committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the course of this armed conflict.
We consider it a moral obligation towards victims of those atrocious crimes that justice be a part of any sustainable peace. The perpetrators of those crimes must be held accountable using, in particular, appropriate international mechanisms. In this regard, we support the investigation by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court into the situation in Ukraine. We reject the threats by the Russian authorities against the Prosecutor and the Judges of the Court.
We emphasize the central role of the crime of aggression that made possible the large-scale commission of other international crimes. The prosecution of political and military leaders, who planned, initiated, and continue to wage this war of aggression, as well as their accomplices, is indispensable for bringing justice to a large number of victims.
We underscore that the planning, preparation, initiation, and execution of this war of aggression constitute a crime under general international law and the criminal laws of Ukraine and Russia.
Given that the crime of aggression is, by definition, committed by political and military leaders of the state, as well as the inability of the ICC to exercise jurisdiction over this crime in the situation in Ukraine, we support the initiative of Ukraine, other states, and international organizations to establish a special international tribunal for the crime of aggression. This initiative is firmly based in international law and the designation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an act of aggression by the overwhelming majority of U.N. member states. Such a tribunal will be able to exercise jurisdiction irrespective of the official position of defendants and immunities they might enjoy under international and national law.
This war became possible because previous grave crimes committed by Russia’s leadership and military on its own soil and abroad went unpunished. The chain of impunity that leads to reoccurring criminality should be broken. We stand ready to help achieve accountability for the perpetrators and reparations for their victims.
Grigor AVETISYAN, attorney-at-law, counsel admitted to practice before the ICC
Nikolai BOBRINSKY, LL.M.
Gleb BOGUSH, Ph.D. in Law, international lawyer
Andrey Buzin, Ph.D. in Law, Associate Professor
Anastasia BURAKOVA, lawyer, founder of the “Ark” project
Sergey VASILIEV, Ph.D. in Law, Associate Professor and Director of the Amsterdam Center for Criminal Justice, Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam
Grigory VAYPAN, Ph.D. in Law, lawyer
Sergei GOLUBOK, Ph.D. in Law, attorney-at-law, counsel admitted to practice before the ICC
Dariana GRYAZNOVA, human rights defender, LL.M. in Human Rights Law
Dmitry GURIN, international lawyer
Sergey DAVIDIS, head of the “Support for Political Prisoners: Memorial” project
Yuri DZHIBLADZE, expert in international law and international relations, member of the Council of Russian Human Rights Defenders
Stanislav DMITRIEVSKY, human rights activist
Dmitry DUBROVSKIY, Ph.D., researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University (Prague)
Dmitry ZAKHVATOV, attorney-at-law
Ekaterina MISHINA, Ph.D. in Law, professor at the Free University
Karinna MOSKALENKO, attorney-at-law, human rights defender
Maksim OLENICHEV, human rights lawyer
Vadim PROKHOROV, attorney-at-law
Sergey ROSS, attorney-at-law, founder of the Collective Action Center, director of the Free Russia research center in Brussels
Nataliya SEKRETAREVA, member of the Council, head of the legal department of the Human Rights Defense Center “Memorial”(in a personal capacity)
Stanislav STANSKIKH, Russian constitutionalist in exile, researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, visiting researcher at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
Maxim TIMOFEEV, Ph.D. in Law, international lawyer
Darya TRENINA, attorney-at-law
Alexander CHERKASOV, member of the Council of the Human Rights Defense Center “Memorial” (in a personal capacity)
Denis SHEDOV, member of the Council of the Human Rights Defense Center “Memorial” (in a personal capacity)
Ivan PAVLOV, Ph.D. in Law, attorney-at-law
Olga Gnezdilova, attorney-at-law
Elena Lukyanova, professor at the Free University
Olga Salomatova, international human rights lawyer, specializing in documentation of war crimes and crimes against humanity
Ilya Nuzov, international lawyer, head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Desk, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) (in personal capacity)
Igor Galiayev, lawyer
Michael Korobkov-Voeikov, lawyer, NGO “Freedom for Eurasia”
Aleksandr Stepanov, lawyer
Igor Niederer, lawyer
Mariia Chashchilova, human rights defender
Dmitri Glinski, co-chair of the Board of Directors at the American Russian-speaking Association for Civil & Human Rights (ARA) (in personal capacity)
Maria Issaeva, managing partner, Threefold Legal Advisors LLC
Evgeniia Abroskina, lawyer at the human rights NGO “Every Human Being”
Andrei Bratchenko, lawyer
Arseniy Lytar, member of the Russian United Democratic Party “Yabloko”
Vladimir Lyamin, LL.M. in international private law, lawyer
Elena Shikhova, attorney-at-law
Daria Ivanova, LL.M., lawyer
Nikolai Zboroshenko, LL.M., lawyer
Asya Ostroukh, Ph.D. in Law, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Cave Hill Campus, the University of the West Indies
Daniil Khaymovich, attorney-at-law
Shamil Magomedov, attorney-at-law, human rights defender
Andrei Suslov, doctor of history, professor
Timur Filippov, attorney-at-law
Artem Nemov, LL.M., lawyer
Timofei Vaskin, human rights defender
Vladimir Bagayev, MJur, lawyer
Dinar Idrisov, human rights defender
Sergei Salazkin, lawyer
Andrei Golubenko, senior partner at the law firm “European Center of Human Rights”
Konstantin Potupalo, corporate lawyer
Julia Krotova, lawyer, vice chair of Board of Directors at the American Russian-Speaking Association for Civil & Human Rights (ARA) (in personal capacity)
Anzhelika Prokhorova, lawyer
Vladimir Lincautan, lawyer at the Brussels Bar, human rights lawyer, founder of the Justice for Ukraine Foundation (Brussels)
Aleksandr Popkov, attorney-at-law
Sergey Tsukasov, LL.M. in international law
Elena TIMOSHENKO, lawyer
Maria Kolesova-Gudilina, Ph.D. in Law, disbarred Belarusian attorney-at-law, acting as a representative of Belarusian Independent Association of Human Rights Lawyers
Vladimir Zhbankov, Ph.D. in Law, head of legal aid programs at Free Russia Foundation
Tatyana Stavley, corporate lawyer
