Send Letter eng
Advocacy

Ukraine 5AM Coalition: It’s time to ratify Rome Statute

Ukraine 5AM Coalition welcomes Volodymyr Zelensky’s step towards deepening cooperation with the International Criminal Court. We believe that the official visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to The Hague on May 4, 2023, in particular to the International Criminal Court (ICC), is evidence of our country’s unconditional commitment to the principles of justice and the inevitability of punishment for the most serious international crimes and protection of the interests of victims of the war caused by the aggression of the Russian Federation.

Despite all the myths and doubts that have spread around the ICC in recent years and despite the efforts of Russian propaganda to downplay the role of this institution for the international legal order in the media space, launching an investigation into the situation in Ukraine a week after the invasion, and issuing arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation and Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights under the President of the Russian Federation a year later, effectively demonstrate that the ICC has been and remains to be a key body in ensuring justice for the most serious international crimes committed by the top leadership of any state.

However, nine years into the ongoing armed conflict, the Parliament of Ukraine has not ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC despite numerous declarations of commitment to the principles of the rule of law and international law.

The jurisdiction of the ICC has been extended to the territory of Ukraine since 21 November 2013 as a result of two declarations submitted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 in accordance with Article 12 (3) of the Rome Statute. And while there is no significant difference between RS ratification and declarations in terms of the state’s investigation and cooperation obligations or the ICC’s mandate, the difference lies in the participation rights a state receives after ratification.

In particular, only after the Rome Statute is ratified, Ukraine will have the right to nominate its citizens to participate in the elections of the ICC prosecutor, head of the Registry, judges, participate in the draft of resolutions aimed at developing and strengthening the work of the ICC, vote during the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute, gather working groups on the development of changes to the RS, in particular regarding the crime of aggression, receive technical assistance for strengthening national capacity from other States Parties, participate in working groups on reforming, developing, and strengthening the ICC as an institution.

Currently, Ukraine remains a place where mass war crimes have been committed. However, while the Rome Statute is not ratified, our country does not acquire the rights of a full-fledged member of the International Criminal Court – an effective mechanism for holding to account for the most serious international crimes.

It is important that the ratification of the Rome Statute of the ICC is an obligation of Ukraine enshrined in the Association Agreement with the EU. So if Ukraine really intends to become a member of the European Union, the ratification of the Rome Statute is an inevitable step.

A wide community of Ukrainian NGOs in the Shared Guiding Principles on Accountability for Grave Crimes Committed in Ukraine emphasizes that the adoption of the Rome Statute and the establishment of the ICC was a civilizational breakthrough and that all further actions to ensure accountability for international crimes in the course of Russia’s war against Ukraine should develop and strengthen the system of international criminal justice underpinned by the Rome Statute and the ICC.

Ukraine 5AM Coalition calls on the President of Ukraine to initiate the process of ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court before the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

During the press conference, President Zelensky stated that freedom and justice are universal values. Ukraine’s ratification of the Rome Statute of the ICC will demonstrate its sincere intention to take the side of the victims and the people of Ukraine who have been fighting for the same universal values — freedom and justice — for the tenth year in a row.

0 Comments

Leave a comment

Your e-mail address will not be published. Mandatory fields are marked *

Similar posts
Advocacy
Ukrainian human rights activists propose a new tactic for the OSCE to free Ukrainian civilians abducted by Russia

Torture, isolation, murder, and gloom of Russian prisons. In Vienna, Ukrainian human rights activists told the world about the fate of thousands of civilians who have become hostages of the occupation regime. The focus was on the stories of illegally detained journalists, mayors, activists, and new proposals for their release.

7 May 2025

Advocacy
Discussion on Russian Reparations for Missing Persons in Ukraine held in The Hague. Here are the four key points

Reparations represent a state’s commitment to compensate for harm or loss inflicted by its breach of international law. They are a vital component of restoring justice for victims of armed conflicts and serve as a safeguard against the recurrence of crimes in the future. These issues were the focus of the expert discussion in The Hague, which addressed legal and institutional responses to securing reparations for missing persons in Ukraine.

10 April 2025

Advocacy
Exhibition on Ukrainian Civilians Illegally Detained by Russia Opens in Budapest

An exhibition titled Civilians in Captivity: Stories of Unjust Detentions has opened in the capital of Hungary. Organized by the Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR) in partnership with the State Self-Government of Ukrainians in Hungary (SSUUH), the exhibition sheds light on one of the least known humanitarian crises of Russia’s war against Ukraine — enforced disappearances and the unlawful detention of Ukrainian civilians from occupied territories.

28 March 2025

More articles
Our social media
Relevant publications
More articles
Prisoners of war
MIHR contributes to the development of a map documenting the locations where the Azov fighters are held in Russian captivity

28 May 2025 saw a presentation of the Inferno project’s website and interactive map in Kyiv. This initiative is led by the Azovstal Defenders’ Families Association and the International Cooperation Department of the 1st Azov Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine. The Media Initiative for Human Rights has joined the project as one of the partners by providing data to create the map of detention facilities.

29 May 2025

Enforced disappearances
The body of a man with a gunshot wound to the head, who went missing in 2022, was found in a field in the Kherson region. His friend is still missing

Both men were from the Kherson region. On 26 March 2022, they set out together from Kyiv to return home. Ruslan headed for the Bilozerka district, and Khidir headed for the Chaplynka district. Kherson region was already under occupation at that time, but civilians could still move in and out.

28 May 2025

Advocacy
Ukrainian human rights activists propose a new tactic for the OSCE to free Ukrainian civilians abducted by Russia

Torture, isolation, murder, and gloom of Russian prisons. In Vienna, Ukrainian human rights activists told the world about the fate of thousands of civilians who have become hostages of the occupation regime. The focus was on the stories of illegally detained journalists, mayors, activists, and new proposals for their release.

7 May 2025

More articles