Ratification of Rome Statute: President’s Office explains why Ukraine had to compromise

Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Iryna Mudra said this in a comment to an Ukrinform correspondent in The Hague.

“It is because of fakes circulating about the Rome Statute that we had to make a compromise decision - to ratify with a declaration under Article 124 of the Rome Statute, according to which the ICC will not have jurisdiction under Article 8 (war crimes) over Ukrainian citizens for seven years after ratification. That is, with the ratification of the Rome Statute, we remove the existing risk for our citizens. This is not a caution, but a declaration, the possibility of which is expressly provided for in the Statute, and which was used earlier by France and Colombia,” she explained.

Mudra also noted that this declaration “does not mean impunity for our citizens. Our own law enforcement agencies and foreign ones (under universal jurisdiction) can investigate alleged crimes committed by Ukrainian citizens. This does not depend on the ICC. But Ukraine faithfully adheres to international law, so we are not aware of any such cases.”

When asked whether, after ratification, according to the Rome Statute, other member states could receive a bunch of claims from the aggressor country about alleged crimes committed by Ukrainian military, and the ICC will be required to consider them, Mudra answered “no” and explained that “there is no such lawsuit before the ICC. As no one will file a lawsuit against Ukraine. Russia will definitely not file anything at the ICC, given that Russia does not recognize it, and even ‘statements’ from other sources will not be evaluated by the ICC without consulting Ukraine, in accordance with the principle of complementarity. In any case, this risk, even if it were real, would have appeared 10 years ago, when we recognized the jurisdiction. But for some reason, no one has filed any lawsuits against us in 10 years.”

The deputy head of the President’s Office also noted that the Kremlin was afraid of Ukraine's ratification of the Rome Statute because it realized the consequences.

“Fakes about the Rome Statute are advantageous for Russia. They are actually aware that Ukraine’s ratification for the Rome Statute would result in punitive measures against Russians. No wonder that during the talks in Minsk and Istanbul, Russia demanded that Ukraine revoke its recognition of the ICC's jurisdiction and refrain from ratifying the Rome Statute,” Mudra said.

As reported by Ukrinform, on August 21, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law on the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and amendments to it.

The Rome Statute will enter into force for Ukraine on the first day of the month following the 60th day after the date of deposit of the instrument of ratification with the Secretary General of the United Nations.

The document on the ratification of the Rome Statute stipulates that Ukraine will not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court for War Crimes for 7 years if it concerns Ukrainian citizens.