The establishment of the Special Tribunal on the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine is a key measure, the implementation of which is demanded by the Government of Ukraine, civil society, and the legal community. The Ukrainian Bar Association has also repeatedly called on the international community to support the implementation of the idea of ​​such an ad hoc tribunal.

Why is this measure important? The crime of aggression is a distinct crime that differs in nature from war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The crime of aggression is the planning, preparation, initiation, or implementation of an act of aggression, which by virtue of its nature, seriousness and scale is a gross violation of the UN Charter, by a person who is in a position to actually lead or control the political or military actions of the state. Accordingly, not just ordinary executors of military orders, but the higher military-political leadership of the state can be held responsible for the crime of aggression. In addition, the crime of aggression can cover a wide range of foreign policy, financial, trade, and other decisions and actions that the leadership of the aggressor state takes long before the actual hostilities begin.

These and other reasons determine the extreme importance of prosecuting the leadership of the Russian Federation for the crime of aggression committed against Ukraine. At the same time, in practice, such pursuit is an extra credit question. Read about why this is so and how the international community can cope with the existing difficulties in the report of the Global Accountability Network The Special Tribunal for Ukraine on the Crime of Aggression.

The Global Accountability Network is a network of prosecutors, lawyers, scientists, and other experts, as well as students, who collect and analyze information from open sources about international crimes. GAN continues to focus on events in Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, China, and now Ukraine. The UBA supports GAN's efforts to gather information about crimes committed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine and to widely disseminate such information to the world community.