History shows that the unpunished evil will come back, with a greater force. That is why it is critical to act now and create efficient mechanisms of documenting russia’s war crimes to further bring the perpetrators to justice. Ukrainians will see the completion of the russian aggression in restoring justice for Ukrainian people. The issues have been raised in a discussion on Crime and Punishment: How to Make Russia Responsible for Aggression Against Ukraine taking place at the Warsaw Security Forum on October, 5.
The U.S. congressman, Steve Cohen, from the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress, referred to a speech by a human rights lawyer, the 64th General Prosecutor of U.S. and a brother of U.S. President John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy. He delivered the speech in 1966, in Capetown University. It is commonly referred to as Ripple speech, or Ripple Of Hope. There, he said, among other things, that the worst thing that could happen to war criminals is that they might be forgotten and neglected, such as why they are criminals and what they committed.
"Kennedy talked about students and how they can stand up for the ideals, and stand up against illegal actions, and speak up to the truth. And all those little talks can form the ripples of hope that come together, and in energies and synergies they create a massive current that might wipe down the mightiest walls of oppression. That is what you remember from the speech, and that is what it is known for. But it is a lot more major speech (and this was ab. 60 years ago), and it talks about the problems man has in defending and supporting democracies and the rule of law in Western thought. It was about civil rights and segregation in South Africa, and about opportunities for people independent of their ethnic background, or racial background, to thrive. And the freedom of speech and other freedoms that the Communist regimes did not allow. What Robert Kennedy spoke about in 1966 is still present today. Russia is not Communist but once KGB – always KGB. putin brings that same idea to the fore, and has no respect for individual rights, and he is trying to commit genocide, he is taking acts of genocide in Ukraine,” shared he.
According to him, russia shall be recognized as a terrorist state. One of the objectives shall be to make sure all frozen assets of russian oligarchs are relocated for Ukraine’s post-victory recovery.
Yuliya Payevska (“Tayra”), a paramedic and survivor of russian captivity, shared that when imprisoned, even after torture, she never felt any anger at her torturers, but only pity about them.
“Because I realize they are the main and primary victims of this war. Because whatever they do pushes them into the abyss. Children, women, old people tortured to death… All things they committed calls for justice rather than revenge. No one wants revenge. We simply ask for justice to be administered. Because when we start taking revenge, we would descend to their level. Whereas Ukrainians are the civilized nation, and they recognize the power of the law and international law. That is why I beg for justice, rather anything else. I ask for justice for the sake of my executed brothers in arms,” she emphasized.
Andriy Kostin, Prosecutor General of Ukraine, shared that “justice” is the most frequently used word in his conversations with our partners.
“As a Ukrainian nation, we need justice. This is the basic difference since the war in which we are fighting against russian aggression is not the war between russia and Ukraine. It is the war between the entire civilized democratic world with the absolute evil. That absolute evil has virtually ruined the pillars of international law. They started it in 2008 in Georgia. Their next blow came much more severe in 2014, with the annexation of the Crimea, and with the occupation of parts of Eastern Ukraine, parts of Ukrainian Donbas. And then, without proper response from international community, especially with no proper response within international law, they started the full-scale aggression in 2022. Now I feel and believe that the whole democratic world is united with Ukraine in order to fight for justice: not only for Ukrainian people, but also to prove to everyone that the rule of law means more than the rule of force. That the rule of law prevails over the rule of force. We all need to prove to ourselves that the pillars of international law would be restored. It is our joint fight for justice,” he emphasized.
The Prosecutor General also told that he established a separate unit to deal with sexual violence cases related to the military conflict. To investigate such types of crimes, they designed a special strategy, in cooperation with the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten. According to him, we can refer to the history of Yugoslavia and see that many of such crimes have been left unpunished because the system was not prepared for it. Therefore, he also expects that in the near future, the Office of Pramila Patten would be opened in Kyiv.
Olga Aivazovska, chair of the Board at Civil Network OPORA, said that the establishment of a Special tribunal has both the practical meaning of holding war criminals accountable, and a symbolic sense offering the feeling of justice for Ukrainian people.
“It is vital not only to launch the process in symbolic terms. Because everyone is talking that it is so easy to investigate the act of aggression, everyone knows that the act of aggression has taken place. However, the establishment of the tribunal will give Ukrainian people certain hope for the future, and the future prospect to build some responsibility and justice for everyone committing war crimes in our territory, and against people who made that decision to start that war in 2014. It is directly related to reparations. I believe that post-putin russia must pay back – and not only for atrocities and war crimes in Ukraine, but also they must pay for the recovery of Ukraine. And it is about punishing each and everyone in russia because every tax payer must pay with their money for the reconstruction of a new and modern post-war Ukraine України. And this is the solution because it is about learning lessons for the future generation in russia,” said she.
According to her, Ukrainian public authorities and the partner states have to be collecting testimonies from Ukrainian people in Ukraine and in other countries, to make sure each and every war crime is documented: “Already today we have over 6 mln refugees in Europe and other countries, and they are eye-witnesses, too. They lost their homes, their families and friends. They broke free from the occupied territories, and they must stay not only in the focus of the Ukrainian state, or the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, and also in the focus of our partners. Because they have the jurisdiction to start the investigations in Poland, Estonia, France, Sweden, a.o. We are happy to have the investigation group created. Now we have to understand who of officials and authorities in different countries can communicate and participate in the investigation effort together with civil society. Some countries have never had such experience before.”
OPORA also contributed to the process and opened a Center for War Crimes Documentation in Warsaw. Lawyers and psychologists at the Center conduct preliminary interviews with Ukrainian refugees who left Ukraine and now stay outside Ukraine’s jurisdiction but still want to see justice and are ready to share about russia’s war crimes. You can contact the Center via an online form on the website https://warcrimescenter.org/ or call +48 690 848 019.
Full video of Olga Aivazovska’s speech in English with Ukrainian subtitles:
Permanent representative of the U.S.A. at the OSCE, Michael Carpenter, highlighted that US position is quite clear – to support all the variety of options for accountability mechanisms raised during the discussion.
“I would like to talk about different levels where russian federation attacked the rules we all have subscribed to for so many decades. Because there are so many different levels to this. There is the inter-state level where russia violated the very core tenants of the international order including principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-violation of borders, peaceful dispute resolution, etc. On another level, russia attacked the core tenants of the international law, international human rights law through its systematic efforts to target infrastructure facilities, including critical infrastructure facilities, as we have seen in the past months. But then, at the very human level, we’ve seen attacks at the very principles of humanity, including crimes that are so horrific, such as mutilation, torture, rape of children, the things so unspeakable that they not only go beyond the bounds, of not just law but also beyond human decency. Sol at each of those various levels, we have seen an attack at principles that all of us respected for all of our lives,” said he.
Full video of the discussion in English:
For information, Warsaw Security Forum is a leading European Security Conferences dedicated to transatlantic cooperation and focusing on developing common answers to the shared challenges, with a focus on security in central and eastern Europe. It has been held annually, since 2014, and brings together over 1,500 high level representatives of governments, international organizations, industries, think tanks, and civil society from over 90 countries. The two-day agenda is full of panel discussions and round tables held under Chatham House rules, and dozens of bilateral meetings intertwined with sector-specific presentations and a social program of the host country. The effort aims at searching answers and solutions to most relevant political and military questions.