Russia admitted this Monday to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) if the UN institution based in The Hague rules in favor of Ukraine in a complaint under the Genocide Convention.
If the ICJ “follows the example of Kiev and the collective West, it will forever lose Russia’s trust,” said Konstantin Kosachev, deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Council, the upper house of the Federal Assembly.
“There is no doubt that the decision will be as politicized as possible,” Kosachev said, quoted by the Russian agency TASS.
This is a complaint from kyiv against Moscow filed on February 26, 2022, two days after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Moscow partially justified the invasion with accusations of genocide orchestrated by kyiv in Donetsk and Luhansk, in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.
kyiv brought the case to the ICJ, “categorically denying” the allegation and arguing that its use to justify the invasion violated the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.
In March 2022, the ICJ ordered the suspension of military operations, a binding legal decision that Moscow has rejected, pending the court deciding whether it has jurisdiction to try the case, which is contested by Russia.
“If as a result of the analysis of the case, instead of a judicial decision, a complete absurdity becomes public, Russia will have to consider the scenario of a withdrawal of jurisdiction” from the ICJ, Kosachev said.
The senator admitted that this is not “an easy legal task” because the ICJ is “one of the main organs of the UN” and its statute is part of the Charter of the United Nations.
“There is a gradual collapse of all UN bodies. I say this with sincere regret,” Kosachev wrote on social media, according to TASS.
Russia participated today, for the first time, in an ICJ hearing on the case at the court’s headquarters in the Dutch city of The Hague.
Ukraine will present its arguments on Tuesday, followed on Wednesday by 32 countries allied to Ukraine, including Portugal, according to the ICJ schedule.
“For the first time in history, the court allowed 32 countries of the collective West that support the Kiev regime to participate in the trial at the same time,” criticized the vice-president of the Russian Federation Council.
Kosachev accused Ukraine of following in the footsteps of Georgia, which “launched legal action against Russia in 2008” based on the Convention on Racial Discrimination.
He argued that by referring to the Genocide Convention, Ukraine is actually “disputing the legality” of the Russian military operation, “as well as the status of Russia’s new territories.”
“It is outside the jurisdiction of the United Nations court,” he argued.
After the invasion, Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, after having done the same with Crimea in 2014.
According to Kosachev, the issue is not genocide, but the Ukrainian intention to create a political precedent at the ICJ.
“The Ukrainian authorities simply needed to find a convention in which Russia and Ukraine would participate simultaneously and on which the International Court of Justice would have the right to make decisions,” he argued.
Source: TSF
