Documenting and classifying russia’s crimes in the context of a full-scale war is the responsibility of both national and international experts. However, the qualification of crimes has become a real challenge in the russo-Ukrainian War.
According to international law Art. 5 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. , there are four independent categories of international crimes today:
- the crime of genocide;
- crimes against humanity;
- war crimes;
- the crime of aggression.
Ukraine should consider all four categories, but it is critical to focus on recognising russia’s crimes against Ukraine as genocide. It is worth noting that while international crimes are subject to classification, there is no hierarchy of “atrocity” under any circumstances.
So, why should Ukraine promote the narrative that russia’s actions constitute the crime of genocide?
The importance of this issue is that the crime of genocide is the only category of international crimes that indicates the deliberate intention of the aggressor state to destroy a specific group in whole or in part. It means that the proof of the crime of genocide illustrates that all these categories of international crimes were committed because of russia’s primary goal of exterminating Ukrainians.
However, the process of recognising russia’s actions as an act of genocide faces significant challenges. First of all, this concerns the absence in historical retrospect of an effective mechanism that would have jurisdiction and a real opportunity to investigate and qualify the crime of genocide in the context of Ukraine. Another problem is the political aspect of the issue. Former colonising powers have a particular fear of publicly discussing crimes of genocide. However, the political component is perhaps the most crucial aspect of the qualification of crimes, as the “domino principle” is quite effective in the international arena, i.e., when influential players make decisions, other states follow.
That is why ALI’s new PARLIAMENT journal raises the following questions: “Do the norms of national legislation comply with the norms and principles of international law in terms of international crimes: war crimes and genocide?” and “How to legally justify the qualification of russia’s crimes against Ukraine as the crime of genocide?”.
