Ivan Horodyskyy, Vice-President of the Ukrainian Bar Association, Director of Dnistrianskyi Center, took part in the international conference “Special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. Justice to be served”, which took place on August 21, 2023 in Kyiv. The event was held under the patronage of the Office of the President of Ukraine, and the organizers were the NGOs "Tribunal" (Ukraine) and "Justice and Accountability for Ukraine" (United Kingdom). State and public figures, politicians, judges, Ukrainian and foreign lawyers, scientists, etc., took part in the event.

The conference was devoted to the topic of establishment of the Special International Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine and consisted of four panel discussions. Ivan Horodyskyy became one of the speakers of the second panel, which was entitled "The issue of personal and functional immunities in the practice of international criminal tribunals."

In his speech, the UBA Vice-President noted that the Ukrainian legal community, in particular the Ukrainian Bar Association, actively supports bringing the top Russian political leadership to justice for violations of international law. The creation of the Special Tribunal is one of the ways to achieve this goal, but there are many challenges on this path — in particular, this is the issue of functional immunities of the highest military and political leadership of Russia, Ivan Horodyskyy emphasized.

"This issue, in addition to the legal one, also has a political dimension. Russia will certainly manipulate the personal and functional immunities — primarily of the head of state, government, and foreign minister — to defend its own twisted version of international law and criticize the rules-based world order. However, it is international law that makes it possible to reasonably answer these objections. In particular, the inapplicability of the immunities of high-ranking officials in international justice in case they commit international crimes was confirmed in all the statutes of international criminal courts, starting with the Nuremberg Tribunal," said Mr. Horodyskyy.

The UBA Vice-President emphasized that the main condition that guarantees a complete solution to the problem of functional immunities of Russian leaders in case of punishment for the crime of aggression is to ensure maximum international support for the creation and activity of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression, if this form is chosen as the key for prosecution of the Russian leadership.

You can watch Ivan Horodyskyy's speech in this video: