More than 24 years after its signing, Kyiv has ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court – with one restriction.
Ukraine has joined the International Criminal Court, but claims a temporary exemption from jurisdiction for its military. The parliament in Kyiv voted with 281 MPs to ratify the so-called Rome Statute of the criminal court, MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak announced on Telegram. There was one vote against and 22 abstentions.
Ukraine signed the Rome Statute in January 2000, but has not yet ratified it. The statute is the basis of the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague. The court deals with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, among other things.
Country will not recognise Court for seven years
However, the document now adopted stipulates that Ukraine will not recognize the jurisdiction of the war crimes court for seven years when it comes to Ukrainian citizens. The background to this is the army’s fears that its actions in the fight against Russian forces could in some cases be charged as war crimes. The military conflict has not only been going on since 2022, but since 2014 – since Russian forces first appeared in Donbass.
In addition, Kyiv explains that the ICC’s requests for cooperation can be addressed both through diplomatic channels and directly to the Prosecutor General’s Office or the Ministry of Justice – in Ukrainian.
Not all countries ratify the Rome Statute
Due to complicated deadlines, the Rome Statute will not come into force for Ukraine for several weeks. So far, 124 states have ratified it, with 139 signatures. Russia and the USA have signed but not ratified it.
Among other things, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin because of his alleged responsibility for the deportation of Ukrainian children.
Source: Stern
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