The civil society organizations are Amnesty International, the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), Civitas Maxima, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Human Rights Watch, REDRESS, and TRIAL International. The Coalition for the International Criminal Court, of which these groups are members, also endorsed the statement. The groups issued this statement on the European Union Day Against Impunity, observed in The Hague on May 23, 2022, and organized by the French presidency of the Council of the EU, together with the European Commission, the EU Genocide Network, and Eurojust.
“This year’s EU Day Against Impunity shines a spotlight on the fact that much more is needed to effectively address grave human rights violations around the world. EU countries should work together to extend principled support for accountability for atrocities not just in Ukraine but in other conflicts where civilians suffer widespread abuses.”
Balkees Jarrah, interim international justice director at Human Rights Watch.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, EU countries and other governments have worked to engage a range of accountability tools to ensure the prosecution of grave crimes committed in the context of that conflict. The EU has also made clear that it supports all measures to ensure justice for serious crimes, wherever they take place. The European Union and its member states should build on this unprecedented support for accountability for crimes committed in Ukraine to strengthen the cause of justice worldwide, the human rights groups said.
Governments and international judicial bodies have initiated a number of accountability efforts in response to the crimes in Ukraine. On March 2, the International Criminal Court (ICC)prosecutor announced the opening of a formal investigation following the request of a group of ICC…
