Representatives from more than 40 countries will meet in London on Monday to discuss further support for an independent International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate war crimes in Ukraine.
The conference, co-hosted by British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab and Dutch Justice and Security Minister Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius, comes days after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin and the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, were accused of illegally deporting Ukrainian children, an action defined as a war crime.
The British deputy prime minister said the meeting was aimed at concerting efforts to hold war criminals accountable “for the atrocities committed in Ukraine during this unjust, unprovoked and illegal invasion.”
“The UK, together with the international community, will continue to provide the International Criminal Court with the funds, people and expertise to ensure that justice is done,” he said.
The Dutch Minister for Justice and Security stressed the importance of “determining the truth, achieving justice and ensuring security” and argued that Ukrainians deserve “support in the search for justice.”
The event will open with speeches by Minister of Justice of Ukraine Denys Maliuska, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin and ICC Prosecutor General Karim Khan.
The program will include sessions on collecting evidence and coordinating the progress of investigations, as well as supporting witnesses and victims to provide information without reliving the trauma.
The British Government announced the mobilization of additional funds of 395 thousand pounds (447 thousand euros) to the ICC this year, for a total of around one million pounds (1.13 million euros).
The money will be used to provide psychological support to victims and witnesses of crimes, including sexual violence, to send more British experts to work for the ICC, and to help train investigators to collect digital evidence of war crimes, such as images of social networks and cell phones. The telephones.
London said it hoped other countries would commit at the conference to provide practical and financial support to the Court.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, triggering a war that plunged Europe into the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: TSF
