The Ukrainian Parliament’s Human Rights Commissioner, Liudmyla Denisova, called on Wednesday 16 March for the establishment of a “special tribunal to punish war crimes in Ukraine”.
Speaking to the European Parliament’s Sub-Committee on Human Rights from a cellar in Kiev, Mrs Denisova, who is trying to gather evidence of the crimes committed, said that a war tribunal should be set up, Russia having withdrawn from the International Criminal Court. She argued for a second Nuremberg Tribunal to include all criminals, without limiting itself to the status of the International Criminal Court.
“The Russian army is committing war crimes on Ukrainian territory every day, against Ukrainians, against civilisation and all the values of democracy”, she said, adding that there were “cynical violations of the Geneva Convention” against the population.
Recalling that residential areas, schools and hospitals were being bombed, the Commissioner explained that the number of civilian casualties was constantly increasing. “We can speak of an active genocide of the Ukrainian population”, she said, adding that Russian forces were using weapons prohibited by international conventions, such as thermobaric munitions, cluster munitions, phosphorus bombs and anti-personnel mines. “The use of such munitions, which kill civilians en masse, is a crime against humanity”, she warned.
According to Mrs Denisova, more than 2,500 houses have been destroyed, as well as 300 hospitals and 120 schools. Mrs Denisova estimated that 20,000 people had been killed so far, including more than 2,000 in Mariupol alone. She said that since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office has started an investigation into the deaths of 103 children.
The Commissioner also highlighted cases of torture, rape and looting - including of humanitarian convoys. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)