Labour Pushes For Tribunal to Prosecute Russia Over Ukraine

September 05, 2024
Labour Pushes for Tribunal to Prosecute Russia Over Ukraine
  • Labour Urges Progress on Tribunal for Russia's Ukraine Crimes

According to Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood, the incoming Labour government intends to give the two-year-old international attempt to establish a special tribunal with the power to punish Russia's leadership for the crime of aggression some new life.

Debates concerning which body should establish the special tribunal have hampered discussions. There have also been concerns in the US that western leaders could be threatened with lawsuits in the future if an organisation were able to deprive the Russian leadership of immunity from prosecution in a foreign court.

Leading the core group of forty nations searching for a way to hold the three Russian leaders—Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Vladimir Putin—to account has been the United Kingdom.

Mahmood told the Guardian that in light of what has occurred to Ukraine, immediate action was required, both legally and militarily.

security council is blocked due to the existence of the Russian veto, making the Council of Europe the best alternative.

Since neither Russia nor Ukraine has completely accepted the Rome law that established the International Criminal Court (ICC), the ICC is not equipped to try cases involving the crime of aggression as opposed to individual war crimes. It is argued that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is not allowed to try the three important members of the Russian leadership who led the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, despite the fact that the ICC has issued arrest warrants for Putin for his involvement in the kidnapping of Ukrainian children and for former defence minister Sergei Shoigu for bombing Ukraine's electrical infrastructure from October 2022 to March 2023.

Karim Khan, the ICC prosecutor, spoke with Mahmood this past week. He has already expressed doubts about the necessity of a special tribunal.