ICJ accepts plea from 32 countries to side with Ukraine in genocide case against Russia
Posted Date – 10:30 PM, Fri – 09/06/23
ICJ accepts plea from 32 countries to side with Ukraine in genocide case against Russia
The Hague: The United Nations’ top court said on Friday that the International Court of Justice had accepted a plea from 32 countries to side with Ukraine in its genocide case against Russia.
This is the most any country has joined another country in its claim at the World Court in The Hague, Netherlands.
The Ukrainian government filed the legally inventive lawsuit just days after Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. The Kremlin snubbed a hearing next month, while protesters carrying Ukrainian flags chanted anti-war slogans outside the gates of the courthouse.
Latvia was the first country to intervene in a complaint that Russia wrongly accused Ukraine of genocide in its eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions and used it as a pretext for invasion, in violation of the 1948 genocide convention.
A record 33 countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia and every EU member state except Hungary, have asked to side with Ukraine in the case. However, judges at the United Nations Court of Justice rejected the US request, citing technical issues.
“The court concluded that the statements of intervention filed in this case were admissible, except for the statement filed by the United States,” they said.
Any country that has signed the post-World War II treaty criminalizing genocide can apply to intervene in cases brought under the agreement. The United States did not accept parts of the Genocide Convention when it signed the treaty, so the judge ruled that the country had no right to participate.
Countries and organizations not directly involved in legal proceedings often ask courts if they can present arguments in the case, especially if the outcome is likely to affect them in some way.
Experts believe the petition in the pending case is an attempt to show support for Ukraine and condemn Russia for the war, rather than a country seeking an opportunity to advocate for a particular legal position or argument.
“These countries are expressing solidarity with Ukraine,” Ori Pomson, a Cambridge University legal scholar whose research focuses on the International Court of Justice, told The Associated Press.
In March 2022, a court ordered Russia to cease hostilities in Ukraine, but Moscow did not comply.
The world court is hearing another case earlier brought by Ukraine related to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and Russia’s financing of separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
A similar group of countries has also asked the European Court of Human Rights to intervene in a series of cases Ukraine has brought against Russia over the war. In March, the Strasbourg-based court granted 31 groups the right to support Ukraine in those lawsuits.
