On June 7-8, 2024, the Council of Europe contributed to the workshop for media on investigation of crimes in the context of Russian aggression against Ukraine and issues of international law, organised by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
The event was attended by over 40 representatives of Ukrainian and foreign media. In the opening part the participants were addressed by Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Iryna Mudra, and ICC Head of Investigation for International Crimes Committed in Ukraine, Brenda Hollis.
Over two days, media participants had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with interventions from Ukrainian senior prosecutors and international experts on justice processes and accountability for international crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.
Topics included, inter alia, notions of elements of international crimes under international criminal law, progress of investigation of war crimes in Ukraine, the role of various international justice mechanisms of accountability in this regard, the prospects for comprehensive international compensation mechanism for the Russian aggression against Ukraine, and more.
International experts from the Council of Europe – Jorg Polakiewicz, the Director for Legal Advice and Public International Law of the Council of Europe, and Jeremy McBride, a barrister from the United Kingdom – presented online on the topics of a special international tribunal for the crime of aggression as well as the role of the system of the European Convention of Human Rights in international mechanisms of accountability. Also, Markiyan Kliuchkovskyi, the Executive Director of the international Register of Damage for Ukraine (RoD) interacted with the audience on the functioning of the RoD as a first stage in establishing a comprehensive compensation mechanism for the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
In an open dialogue format, journalists interacted with prosecutors and experts, receiving answers to their questions.
The Council of Europe contribution to the workshop was provided within the framework of the Council of Europe project “Fostering Human Rights in the Criminal Justice System in Ukraine”, which is part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” (2023-2026). The workshop was organised in partnership with international partners – the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), the EU Project Pravo-Justice, the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group, and Georgetown University.
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