The Russian armed forces are clearly not achieving their objectives in Ukraine, Russian attacks have caused enormous suffering on civilians and material destruction of non-military targets, so Russia is accused of war crimes. The political impact on Russia if the country is convicted of these crimes was the topic of the panel mediated by the analyst of International CNN Brazil Lourival Sant’Anna, this Saturday (26). See the full video above.
To analyze the allegations of war crimes and the political impact on President Vladimir Putin and the Russian regime, the former judge of the Hague Criminal Court Sylvia Steiner contextualized how the main international court works, and spoke about the current accusations about the Russia.
“The International Court of Justice, the highest body of the United Nations, has taken a provisional decision to declare that there is no legal basis for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” he said.
“It has not yet examined the substantive matter, Russia’s allegation that genocide is taking place, but it is important in this provisional decision that they state that, according to international law, the existence of an alleged genocide is not enough to authorize a country to to invade another – the UN letter demands that all peaceful solutions be sought for disputes between countries – so already sending the message to Russia, that there is no basis. The international criminal court does not judge disputes between states, it judges individuals. And at the request of Ukraine, and now recently understanding the request of 41 states, it started a war crimes investigation that would be taking place in Ukraine after the invasion of Russia,” he explained.
The lawyer and researcher in the field of international law – with a focus on international courts – at the University of Leiden (Netherlands), Paula Baldini, explained which acts constitute war crimes in Ukraine and how the process works.
“They will send investigators to collect material, collect depositions and the Court will receive videos and photos and will analyze. These videos do not operate alone, they work as evidence that there was a crime, the context is evaluated, with the testimonies it is possible to assess how it happened, where it was bombed, if it could turn into a military target, and with that you build a set to give progress in a possible case”, he explains.
For the specialist, the images are strong indications of violation of the “principle of distinction”, an act that makes it mandatory to differentiate between civilian and military targets.
“The purpose of the rules in war is to minimize the suffering of the people involved. A troop can make decisions necessary to advance, but it must obey the principle of distinction. Civilians included residential areas, hospitals, civilian people – because they are not uniformed – and any other place where civilians are protected and sheltered during a war,” she said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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