Rights advocates urge justice for victims of Russia-Ukraine conflict News
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Rights advocates urge justice for victims of Russia-Ukraine conflict

Amnesty International issued a statement Monday, demanding justice for victims in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard emphasized:

Any negotiations over the future of the people of Ukraine must prioritise justice for all crimes under international law committed since Russia’s military intervention in 2014, accountability for those responsible, and reparations for victims of Russia’s aggression.

She further called on US President Donald Trump to secure lasting peace in Ukraine by pursuing real justice and accountability for those suspected of war crimes under international law. She highlights the necessity to immediately end the ongoing violations, as “a rushed ‘peace deal’ will only prolong their suffering and ensure impunity for the perpetrators of heinous rights violations.” Although the Trump administration has renewed its focus on a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, Amnesty stresses that its executive order imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) weakens the rights of victims and survivors of international crimes in Ukraine and beyond.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has reported over 12,600 deaths of civilians in Ukraine as of February. Russia is believed to have forcibly disappeared Ukrainian civilians, replaced Ukraine’s education system with Russia’s official curriculum in the Russian language, and tortured and unlawfully executed prisoners of war (POWs).

The ICC has issued arrest warrants against President Vladimir Putin, and other senior Russian officials. According to a press release from the court,

there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility…, (i) for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute), and (ii) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility (article 28(b) of the Rome Statute).

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