The creation of a special criminal court or tribunal to punish the top russian leadership for the crime of aggression remains one of the fundamental issues for Ukraine and the international community.
The final decision on the format and principles of functioning of this body of international justice has not been made yet, however, in journalistic circles it received its name Nuremberg 2.0 by analogy with the procedural actions of the Nuremberg Tribunal (November 20, 1945 – October 1, 1946) on war criminals of Nazi Germany.
The referral to Nuremberg is, firstly, due to the fact that it became the only city to hold an international criminal tribunal nowadays, where they were tried in particular for the crime of aggression (then it was called a crime against peace).
Secondly, the armed aggression of the russian federation is the largest war in Europe since 1945, and it is justified that the legal response should be similar to what the international community carried out after the Second World War.
Thirdly, the crimes committed by putin’s regime in Ukraine correspond to all the features of the crimes convicted at the Nuremberg Trials. And therefore, the legal procedure and mechanisms of this process can and should be used as the basis of the future international tribunal against the racist putin regime of the russian federation, which is essentially identical to the Nazi regime of Hitler’s Germany.
Practically all the charges brought against Nazi criminals at the Nuremberg Trials correspond to the crimes committed by putin and his entourage against Ukraine. In particular, the leaders of the Hitler`s regime were tried for:
- Complicity in the planning and conspiracy of the Nazi party with the purpose of committing crimes, large-scale aggression at the international level;
- Crimes against peace – planning, preparation, unleashing and waging an aggressive war or war as a result of violation of international agreements and treaties;
- War crimes – violations of the laws and customs of war, including murder and cruel treatment of the civilian population of the occupied territory or prisoners of war, looting of state or private property, senseless destruction of cities and villages or their ruining, which is not justified by military necessity;
- Crimes against humanity – murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhuman acts committed against the civilian population, or persecution for political, racial or religious reasons.
As we can see, the actual difference between the crimes of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Reich and putin’s racist regime is only that the former was destroyed by an international coalition, and the entire ruling elite was convicted, in the latter case, it is still ahead.
Therefore, the preparation and unleashing of criminal aggression against Ukraine became the starting point for committing other war crimes against Ukrainian citizens. By the way, starting and waging an aggressive war was the main crime at the Nuremberg Tribunal.
Certain steps have already been taken to create an international judicial structure. At the end of April 2022, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a Resolution in support of the creation of a special tribunal. And on May 19, 2022, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution calling on the EU to support the creation of a special tribunal and provide the necessary human, budgetary resources, administrative, investigative and logistical support. It is symbolic that the former prosecutor of the Nuremberg Military Tribunal, 102-year-old Benjamin Ferencz, and the ex-president of the European Court of Human Rights, sir Nicolas Bratza, joined the initiative to create a special tribunal for russia. The main legal problem still remains the creation of an international judicial body that would have the jurisdiction to prosecute the highest officials of the russian federation for the crime of aggression.
Although the permanent International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued a warrant for putin’s arrest, it does not have the authority to investigate the crime of aggression. Due to russia’s veto power, the UN Security Council is unable to qualify russia’s actions as aggression and apply coercive measures. In the same way, Ukrainian national courts cannot open criminal proceedings against the russian president, head of government or minister of foreign affairs, because they use personal official immunities.
! Therefore, the key characteristic of the created tribunal should be the presence of powers to investigate and prosecute for committing the crime of aggression against Ukraine without any personal official immunities, which will finally allow the world community to prove the identity of the bearers of Nazism and racism. The choice of the best option and the timing of the creation of the tribunal depends on the political will of international partners and the timing of Ukraine’s victory in the war.
