On 3-5 March 2023, the Council of Europe contributed to the high-level conference "United for Justice", organised by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine in Lviv. The conference facilitated discussions on the accountability for the Russian Federation´s aggression against Ukraine.
The event brought together key national and international actors, including the Presidents and First Ladies of Ukraine and Latvia, all high-level political and justice sector establishment of Ukraine, Ministers and Prosecutors General of several countries, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, judges of international courts, high-level representatives of several international organisations as well as international and national NGOs. The Council of Europe delegation at the conference was led by Christos Giakoumopoulos, Director General Human Rights and Rule of Law.
The conference sessions focused on various accountability mechanisms for international crimes. The high-level panellists, with a wide range of backgrounds, discussed the prospects of investigating and prosecuting the crime of aggression of Russia against Ukraine as well as the setting up of a comprehensive compensation mechanism. The deliberate targeting of the critical civilian infrastructure, alleged crimes of torture, filtration operations and forced relocations, conflict related sexual violence, crimes against children, the war’s impact on the environment, the fate of frozen Russian assets, and the role of NGOs in documenting international crimes were also addressed.
A few important initiatives were put forward on the margins of the Conference, including the Dialogue Group on Accountability for Ukraine, the announcement of official decisions on the set up of the Office of International Criminal Court in Ukraine, the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression (ICPA) in the Hague in Eurojust along with the start of operations of the Core Integrational Crimes Evidence Database (CICED).
The conference reaffirmed that “no peace can be without justice and accountability”.
The Council of Europe contribution to the conference was provided within the Projects “Fostering Human Rights in the Criminal Justice Field in Ukraine” and “Strengthening Ukrainian Law Enforcement Agencies during War and Post-War Period”, which are part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” (2023-2026).
More information:
- Conference programme
- Committee of Ministers stresses urgent need to establish accountability and compensation mechanisms in response to Russian aggression against Ukraine
- Conference website
- More photos from the event - Facebook album: Conference | Side meetings
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