Meeting in Chișinău on Friday 15 May, the foreign affairs ministers of the Council of Europe member states adopted a Resolution establishing an Enlarged Partial Agreement on the Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
A decisive step in the establishment of this new international jurisdiction has therefore just been taken.
Thirty-four Council of Europe countries (out of 46), as well as Australia and Costa Rica, have signed up to this agreement, which is also supported by the European Union, which – the Commission has announced – will contribute €10 million towards the creation of this new judicial body.
Twelve Council of Europe countries have for the moment not joined the initiative.
They include four members of the European Union (Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Malta), four Balkan countries (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Albania), three from the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), as well as Türkiye.
Launched last June when Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, visited Strasbourg, this new supranational jurisdiction is part of the policy of support for Ukraine pursued by the Council of Europe since March 2022, when it decided to expel Russia from its ranks, one month after the start of the war.
With the creation of this new tribunal, the Council of Europe aims to fill a gap in the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is able to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, but not the crime of aggression, which refers to the decision to use armed force against another State in violation of the United Nations Charter.
The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, as well as his Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and even high-ranking military commanders who oversaw the attack on Ukraine could be affected by the procedure.
Discussions will now focus on the organisation and funding of the tribunal, the two being linked.
Several individual trials do not have the same cost as a trial involving several defendants. Judgements by videoconference require investment in new technologies, but reduce imprisonment costs. And how is the funding of witness protection to be managed?
These are all questions at the heart of thematic think tanks, the work of which in The Hague are expected to be completed by late 2026 – early 2027, making it possible to move forward with full knowledge of the facts.
For the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrii Sybiha, present in Chișinău, “the moral foundations of Europe and the world will only be restored when the crime of aggression against Ukraine is punished. This is not a question of the past. It is a question of the future. It is about re-establishing a common space of truth, justice and trust”.
For its part, Moscow has already expressed its rejection of this future court, the decisions of which it will consider “null and void”.
Andrii Sybiha believes that 15 May marked a “point of no return”.
“Very few believed this day would come. But it did”, he stated on social networks. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)