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Appeal of the Committee on legal policy issues concerning facts of genocide against the Ukrainian people

04.04.2022

On February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation has unleashed an aggressive war against Ukraine. After this, the United Nations International Court of Justice (UN ICJ) made on March 16, 2022, a decision (order) on temporary measures on the case Ukraine vs. Russian Federation “On accusation in committing genocide in accordance with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.

The decision of the UN ICJ on the highest legal level has registered Russia’s war acts on the territory of Ukraine. Alongside, the text of the decision states that the court has found no evidence in favor of Russia's allegations that Ukraine committed a crime of genocide on its territory. The court obliged Russia to cease intrusion into Ukraine immediately.

Instead, the Russian Federation continued to commit war crimes on the territory of our state.

After liberation by the Armed Forces of Ukraine of Kyiv region, there were revealed dozens of bodies of tortured and killed by russian occupants’ civilians and mass graves with hundreds of bodies of Ukrainians on the outskirts of the capital, in particular in Bucha, Irpin and alongside the Zhytomyr route, which is the evidence of genocide against the civil population of Ukraine by russians. Dozens of shot bodies of Ukrainian civilians lie just in the middle of the streets in Bucha. According to information from law enforcement officers, retreating, occupants have mined bodies. Russians mercilessly killed locals, who were trying to leave the city in their cars. Occupants shot even those people who moved through the city by bicycles and did not pose any threat. Killed civilians in Bucha lie in yards, near houses, near the road. There are signs of torture on some bodies. According to witnesses, occupants killed those, “whom they did not like.”

There are numerous cases of massive killing of civilians, raping, robbery, kidnapping and execution of civilians, which were officially confirmed by international institutions, such as the UN.

At least 280 civilians were shot in Bucha by russians. They were killed right on the street, some had their hands tied and shot in the back of the head, some of killed were minors. Many bodies had white bandages on them, indicating that they were unarmed.

The elder of the village Motyzhyn Olha Sukhenko, her husband Ihor and son Oleksandr, who have been kidnapped on March 23, were found murdered with signs of torture. Bodies of Olha and Oleksandr were in the mass grave, Ihor’s – in sewerage. The bodies of several undressed and wrapped in blanket dead women were found 20 km from Kyiv, whom russian barbarians were trying to burn on the side of the road.

The Zhytomyr route near Dmytrivka village near Kyiv is also strewn with corpses of civilians. In Irpin russians shot women and then drove over them using tanks.

Apart from that, occupants cynically destroyed people’s homes and infrastructure of cities, causing huge destruction and damage through their criminal acts.

The Prosecutor General’s Office together with the Security service of Ukraine work on criminal proceeding regarding the fact of committing of the genocide of the Ukrainian people by the political and military leadership of the Russian Federation.

The Constitution of Ukraine determines that: Ukraine is a sovereign and independent, democratic, social, law-based state; the sovereignty of Ukraine extends throughout its entire territory; the territory of Ukraine within its present border is indivisible and inviolable; he human being, his or her life and health, honor and dignity, inviolability and security are recognized in Ukraine as the highest social value; to affirm and ensure human rights and freedoms is the main duty of the State; no one shall usurp state power; to protect the sovereignty and territorial indivisibility of Ukraine, and to ensure its economic and informational security are the most important functions of the State and a matter of concern for all the Ukrainian people; the defense of Ukraine, the protection of its sovereignty, territorial indivisibility and inviolability, are entrusted to the Armed Forces of Ukraine; he foreign political activity of Ukraine is aimed at ensuring its national interests and security by maintaining peaceful and mutually beneficial co-operation with members of the international community, according to generally acknowledged principles and norms of international law; citizens have equal constitutional rights and freedoms and are equal before the law; there shall be no privileges or restrictions based on race, color of skin, political, religious and other beliefs, sex, ethnic and social origin, property status, place of residence, linguistic or other characteristics; every person has the inalienable right to life, no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of life, the duty of the State is to protect human life; everyone has the right to respect of his or her dignity, no one shall be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment that violates his or her dignity; everyone is guaranteed the inviolability of his or her dwelling place; no one shall be unlawfully deprived of the right of property, the right of private property is inviolable; defense of the Motherland, of the independence and territorial indivisibility of Ukraine, and respect for its state symbols, are the duties of citizens of Ukraine (Articles 1, 2, 3, 5, 17, 18, 24, 27, 28, 30, 41, 65).

Establishing liability for the commission of relevant crimes is an international legal obligation of Ukraine in accordance with international legal documents that have entered into force for our state (most of them – long before entering into force of the Constitution of Ukraine). They are, in particular, the  Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948 (entered into force on February 15, 1955); the Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war of August 12, 1949 (entered into force on January 3, 1955); the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of August 12, 1949 (entered into force on January 3, 1955); the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of May 14, 1954 (entered into force on July 6, 1957); the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid of November 30, 1973 (entered into force on July 18, 1976); the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of December 10, 1984 (entered into force on June 26, 1987).

And here are the provisions of some of them.

1) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948

Article ІІ of the Convention determines the meaning of genocide, namely: in the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

а) killing members of the group;

b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

(In the example of Bucha city of Kyiv region, there are signs of committing genocide against the Ukrainian people, namely massive killings of men at the age of 18 to 60, raping of women and their further murders, abuse of the bodies of the dead, murders of children and elder people, tortures,  creation of a basement equipped for torture, in which the bodies of tortured and killed locals were found, creation of such living conditions that are designed for the complete or partial extermination of Ukrainians, in particular, intentional deprivation of the population from the access to food, looting.

Article ІІІ of the Convention provides punishments for such acts:

а) genocide;

b) conspiracy to commit genocide;

c) direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

d) attempt to commit genocide;

е) complicity in genocide.

Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals (Article ІV).

The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention, and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article III (Article V).

Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article III shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction (Article VІ).

2) Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war of August 12, 1949

Article 4 of the Convention determines that persons protected by the Convention are those who, at a given moment and in any manner whatsoever, find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a Party to the conflict or Occupying Power of which they are not nationals.

Article 146 of the Convention

The High Contracting Parties undertake to enact any legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for persons committing, or ordering to be committed, any of the grave breaches of the present Convention defined in the following Article.

Each High Contracting Party shall be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts. It may also, if it prefers, and in accordance with the provisions of its own legislation, hand such persons over for trial to another High Contracting Party concerned, provided such High Contracting Party has made out a prima facie case.

Each High Contracting Party shall take measures necessary for the suppression of all acts contrary to the provisions of the present Convention other than the grave breaches defined in the following Article.

Article 147

Grave breaches to which the preceding Article relates shall be those involving any of the following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the present Convention: willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power, or willfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in the present Convention, taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.

Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts (Protocol I), June 8, 1977

Article 50. Definition of civilians and civilian population

1. A civilian is any person who does not belong to one of the categories of persons referred to in Article 4 A (1), (2), (3) and (6) of the Third Convention and in Article 43 of this Protocol. In case of doubt whether a person is a civilian, that person shall be considered to be a civilian.

2. The civilian population comprises all persons who are civilians.

 

Article 51. Protection of the civilian population

1. The civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against dangers arising from military operations. To give effect to this protection, the following rules, which are additional to other applicable rules of international law, shall be observed in all circumstances.

2. The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited.

5. Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate:

a) an attack by bombardment by any methods or means which treats as a single military objective a number of clearly separated and distinct military objectives located in a city, town, village or other area containing a similar concentration of civilians or civilian objects; and 

b) an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.

 

Article 54. Protection of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population

1. Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited.

2. It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive (russian military has actually completely destroyed the dairy farm “Agromol” in Kharkiv region, which was an important object for civil population and provided people with dairy foods, which during the war actions were almost the only means of escape from hunger).

 

Article 75. Fundamental guarantees

1. In so far as they are affected by a situation referred to in Article 1 of this Protocol, persons who are in the power of a Party to the conflict and who do not benefit from more favorable treatment under the Conventions ( 995_151,  995_152,  995_153, 995_154 ) or under this Protocol shall be treated humanely in all circumstances and shall enjoy, as a minimum, the protection provided by this Article without any adverse distinction based upon race, color, sex, language, religion or belief, political or other opinion, national or social origin, wealth, birth or other status, or on any other similar criteria. Each Party shall respect the person, honor, convictions and religious practices of all such persons.

2. The following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever, whether committed by civilian or by military agents:

a) violence to the life, health, or physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular:

a.1) murder;

a.2) torture of all kinds, whether physical or mental;

a.3) corporal punishment;

a.4) mutilation;

b) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault;

c) the taking of hostages;

d) collective punishments; and

e) threats to commit any of the foregoing acts.

 

Article 76. Protection of women

1. Women shall be the object of special respect and shall be protected in particular against rape, forced prostitution and any other form of indecent assault.

 

Besides, the Criminal Code of Ukraine provides liability for war crimes.

Article 438. Violation of the laws and customs of war

1. Cruel treatment of prisoners of war or civilians, deportation of civilian population for forced labor, pillage of national treasures on occupied territories, use of methods of the warfare prohibited by international instruments, or any other violations of rules of the warfare recognized by international instruments consented to by binding by the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine, and also giving an order to commit any such actions -

shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of eight to twelve years.

2. The same acts accompanied with an intended murder, -

shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of ten to fifteen years, or life imprisonment.

Article 442. Genocide

1. Genocide, that is a willfully committed act for the purpose of total or partial destruction of any national, ethnic, racial, or religious group by extermination of members of any such group or inflicting grave bodily injuries on them, creation of life conditions aimed at total or partial physical destruction of the group, decrease or prevention of childbearing in the group, or forceful transferring of children from one group to another, -

shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of ten to fifteen years, or life imprisonment.

As follows, a full-scale aggressive intrusion of the Russian Federation on Ukraine, massive killings with special cruelty of civilians by russian military and destruction of the infrastructure on the territory of our state have signs of the genocide against the Ukrainian people.

This completely negates any accusations of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, testifies to their falsity and reduces them to the rank of russian state policy and propaganda.

VRU information department