Ukraine said on Tuesday that the International Court of Justice should order Russia compensation for its “war of extermination”, arguing that international law itself is at stake.
“Russia is not above the law. Russia is not above the law and must be held accountable,” Anton Korynevych, Ukraine’s main speaker, said in court, just meters from his Russian opponents, at the Peace Palace in The Hague.
“You have the power to declare that Russia’s actions are illegal, that the continued abuses must stop, that your orders must be carried out and that Russia must pay reparations,” he told the judges.
Ukraine took Russia to the International Court of Justice just days after the February 24, 2022 invasion, in an effort to fight its neighbor on all fronts, legally, diplomatically and militarily.
Kiev’s argument is that Russian President Vladimir Putin has cited an alleged “genocide” against pro-Russian people in eastern Ukraine as one of the reasons for Moscow to invade its neighbor.
According to Ukraine, this is an abuse of the UN Genocide Convention, which was drawn up in 1948 and signed by Kiev and Moscow.
“Can a state really abuse the Genocide Convention to justify a war of conquest?” Korynevych asked.
“The answer must be ‘no’, for the sake of the world, to prevent international law from being transformed into an instrument of human rights abuses and destruction,” he added.
In March last year, the Court sided with Ukraine in a preliminary ruling and ordered Russia to immediately halt its invasion. But Russia opposed this decision, arguing that the International Court of Justice did not have the legal right to rule on the case.
“Russia’s resistance is also an attack on the authority of this court. All missiles that Russia fires at our cities are fired in defiance of this court,” Korynevich said.
The hearings currently taking place at the Peace Palace focus on the question of whether or not the ICJ has jurisdiction.
The Russian legal team argued on Monday that the case should be archived. If Kiev denies the existence of a genocide in eastern Ukraine, why is the court even considering a case under the Genocide Convention, Moscow argues.
In addition to the two warring countries, 32 of Ukraine’s allies will also intervene on Wednesday in support of Kiev.
The ICJ was established to resolve disputes between countries, but is not known for the speed of its work. It will likely take months before the court decides whether it can hear the case.
Your decisions are binding, even if you cannot enforce them in any way.
Source: DN
