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Committing war crimes has become an integral part of how Moscow wages war and Kyiv should not wait to bring alleged Russian perpetrators to justice, argues Oleksandra Matviychuk, head of the organization that jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize this year.
“For decades, Russia has used war as a method to achieve its geopolitical interests and war crimes as a way to win those wars,” Matviychuk, who heads the Center for Civil Liberties, told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service in a statement. extensive interview. “They learned that they can do what they want because they were not punished for war crimes in Chechnya, Moldova, Georgia, Mali or in Syria. Therefore, until we can create justice, there will be no sustainable peace in our region.”
Matviychuk, a business lawyer, says she wants to use the organization’s elevated status to call for international action against human rights abuses and the growing list of evidence pointing to war crimes committed by Russian forces since the Kremlin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
“We see that all these crimes have a systemic nature,” she said. “It is clear that this is not being done by any specific unit of the Russian armed forces but is part of the culture of how Russia conducts war.”
The Center for Civil Liberties was founded in 2007 with the goal of pressuring Ukrainian authorities to transform the country into a full-fledged democracy and ensure that it is governed by the rule of law. But that mission changed in 2014 when Moscow forcibly annexed the Crimean peninsula and fighting with Russian-backed forces erupted in eastern Ukraine, which saw the group begin documenting abuses from the conflict, as well as the disappearance of Kremlin critics, journalists and activists. .
Since Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the organization has worked closely with national and international partners to document potential Russian war crimes against Ukrainian civilians. So far they have documented more than 21,000 examples of war crimes committed by Russian forces since 2014, many of which have taken place since Moscow’s February invasion.
“For eight years we have been talking about the fact that Russia is committing war crimes … and for eight years the world has not paid attention to this criminal practice,” Matviychuk said. “The Nobel Peace Prize gives us a platform to make our voices heard.”
The search for accountability
Matviychuk says her growing focus is to speed up efforts to bring the perpetrators of alleged war crimes to justice.
She points to the Nuremberg Tribunal as an example that is often used as a template. But unlike the trials that only began to hold Nazi war criminals accountable after Germany’s loss in World War II, Matviychuk argues that a similar effort to hold Russia accountable could begin immediately.
“We don’t need to wait for Russia to lose. Why are we making people’s demands for justice dependent on this?” Matviychuk asks. “We must create an international tribunal now and begin all necessary procedures to bring Russian war criminals to justice.”
Doing so will be no small task.
The Center for Civil Liberties had long campaigned for Ukraine to join the International Criminal Court. It is currently a full member, but Kyiv has accepted the court’s jurisdiction over crimes committed on its territory since 2013.
Ukraine must also navigate the complicated politics of international organizations such as the United Nations, where Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and can veto resolutions submitted to the body.
Matviychuk is critical of the UN, which she says is “not fulfilling its functions” and is currently being hijacked by militarily powerful states. Nevertheless, she acknowledges that it remains the best instrument available for an international tribunal that can provide accountability.
With the Security Council blocked, Matviychuk says Kyiv should concentrate its diplomatic efforts on winning votes in the UN General Assembly, where support from two-thirds of countries would be needed to pass such a measure. This means that Ukraine will have to win over countries like Brazil, India and many in Africa that have complex and historical relations with Moscow.
“We need to build support with countries for this idea because this tribunal should not just be created [because] we gathered five states together and then set up a court,” Matviychuk said. “We need legitimacy for this tool … and the best [way to do that] is within the framework of the United Nations.”
Written by Reid Standish in Prague based on reporting by Sofia Sereda for RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.