EU Statement – UN Security Council Arria-formula meeting on Accountability

 - As delivered -

The purpose of today’s conversation is to listen to the excellent briefers and to try to define what action is needed to ensure accountability, so I will skip the parts of my statements that were a description of the situation because I think the briefers have done that in detail, horrendous as much as it is, but let us remember the starting point here.

The General Assembly has asked for Russia to cease hostilities, but what we have seen is intensified shelling of schools, hospitals, and residential buildings.

The perpetrators need to be held to account and I agree with everyone who has said that this is not just about the situation in Ukraine. The accountability for atrocity crimes committed anywhere in the world should be followed up. But today’s focus is on Ukraine, so what do we do, moving forward?

I think one starting point is to back up the ICC prosecutor and we welcome the work that he has been doing, so let us back him up.

Secondly, we need to launch investigations at national level. The national Prosecutors of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine have joined their efforts into a ‘joint investigation team’ enabling them to exchange information and facilitate investigation into war crimes, crimes against humanity and other core crimes. The European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (EUROJUST, some have mentioned) supports this joint investigation team.

Furthermore, we have, as the EU, amended the mandate of the EU Advisory Mission in Ukraine so that it can provide support to the Office of the Prosecutor General and Law Enforcement Agencies to facilitate the investigation and prosecution of international crimes. The EU Advisory Mission deploys 350 personnel to support civilian security sector reform since 2014. It will coordinate closely with the ICC and EUROJUST.

There is massive evidence of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by the Russian military forces. Bucha, Borodyanka, Mariupol, Kramatorsk…the list is long. So, let us get the facts and as the prosecutor said, let us cling to the law.

Colleagues,

It is important to pool our efforts to gather evidence, collect testimonies, to enable prosecution. We support all measures to ensure accountability for human rights violations and abuses, and violations of international humanitarian law. In this regard, we welcome the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry. That Commission still needs support in funding in the Fifth Committee here in the UN.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General has asked for international help in gathering evidence. We are grateful to all states that have lent their support, by financial contributions, by seconding experts to the ICC, and to enlarge the investigation team or by sending forensic experts on the ground. Investigators from EU Member States have arrived in Kyiv and Lviv to assist their Ukrainian counterparts.

States cooperation is necessary to ensure that national prosecution and the ICC can perform the task they have been entrusted with, and that justice is served. Information sharing, coordination among different accountability mechanisms is also crucial as many have said.

Finally, the support by non-States Parties to the ICC is welcomed. This demonstrates the international community’s resolve that the victims of the war in Ukraine will not be forgotten and that their harrowing stories will be heard in Court. Justice is slow, sometimes frustratingly so, but by working for accountability today we will get there and hopefully also prevent further escalation and dissuade further crimes.

I thank you very much, Madam Chair.