On December 15 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in its premises hosted an international seminar on the International Criminal Court and the prospects of the Rome Statute ratification. The event was jointly organized by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Affairs and the international organization "Parliamentarians for Global Action." This non-profit, non-partisan international network of committed legislators, informs and mobilizes parliamentarians in all regions of the world to advocate for human rights and the rule of law, democracy, human security, non-discrimination, and gender equality. The organization "Parliamentarians for Global Action" has been collaborating with members of the Ukrainian Parliament since 2003 in the framework of the Parliamentary Campaign for the Effectiveness and Universality of the ICC System.
Participating
in the seminar was Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Ukraine Oksana Syroyid,
and Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Euro-Atlantic Cooperation and European
Integration at the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Affairs Svitlana
Zalishchuk performed as moderator of two panels. Also active part in the event
took Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs Borys Tarasiuk, MPs
Oksana Yurynets, Ihor Alekseyev, Hryhorii Shverk, and others. Among the invited
guests were also present well-known Ukrainian human rights activists, teachers
of leading national universities, and public activists. "Parliamentarians
for Global Action" from foreign side was represented by members of
national parliaments of Sweden (Margareta Cederfelt), Britain (Mark Pritchard)
and Austria (Petra Bayr).
Participants of the event paid particular attention to the fact that the
ratification of the Rome Statute was one of the obligations that Ukraine
undertook in the framework of the Association Agreement with the EU. In this
regard, representatives of the Ukrainian legislative body stressed that the
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has already adopted two decisions regarding the
prospects of acknowledging the jurisdiction of the International Criminal
Court. This concerns, in particular, the decision of February 2014 on the
actions of the previous government during the Euromaidan and of February 2015
on the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by senior officials of
the Russian Federation and terrorist organizations DPR and LPR.
Participants of the seminar pointed to the fact that the draft amendments to
the Constitution of Ukraine, submitted to the parliament by the President of
Ukraine, envisage a provision that removes legal obstacles to the ratification
of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. However, according to
the said draft law, the provision enters into force only in three years after
the adoption of the relevant constitutional amendments. In so doing, according
to some seminar participants' opinion, Ukraine defers the term of international
justice application, which could be perceived ambiguously by its international
partners.
When discussing this issue, Ukrainian human rights activists recalled that the ratification of the Rome Statute is not just mere fulfillment of the requirement of the Association Agreement with the EU, but also a real tool for conducting investigations in the temporarily occupied territories and bringing war criminals to international justice responsibility for their crimes. In this regard, participants of the event representing civil sector and experts, addressed the MPs with a request to do all necessary for Ukraine to become a full member of the International Criminal Court in the near future. It takes on special significance for Ukraine in the context of possible inclusion of aggression against the state in the list of crimes investigated by the International Criminal Court, beginning on 1 January 2017.
According to representatives of legislative bodies of Austria, Britain and Sweden, Ukraine will surely benefit from the ratification and implementation of the Rome Statute, as this will help to create a fair and equitable justice system in Ukraine, and will enable full participation of Ukraine in the activities of the International Criminal Court. According to their words, the very fact of the ratification also would play a positive part towards creating the necessary preconditions for sustainable peace and become a key to the termination of impunity for the majority of serious crimes under the international law.