(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Deutsch
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ein tribunal für die russischen kriegsverbrechen – aber wie? (original) Español
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¿es posible un tribunal internacional para los crímenes de guerra rusos? Português
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comunidade internacional pode levar rússia à corte 中文
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目前急需设立一个审判俄罗斯战争罪的法庭-但怎样入手? عربي
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كيف السبيل إلى محاكمة المسؤولين عن جرائم الحرب الروسية؟ Français
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un tribunal pour les crimes de guerre russes - mais comment? Pусский
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возможен ли международный трибунал для российских военных преступлений? 日本語
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「特別法廷」でロシアの戦争犯罪を裁けるのか Italiano
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un tribunale per i crimini di guerra russi – in che modo? Ben Ferencz, 102, the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremburg Trials, never thought he would see war in Europe again. After the Second World War, Ferencz helped to try the leaders of the Nazi regime. SWI swissinfo.ch journalist Elena Servettaz asked him how he sees the Russian attack on Ukraine.
“It's difficult to say who a criminal is,” he said.“But to attack another nation, that's certainly a war crime.” Should Russian President Vladimir Putin be brought before a court?“Whoever starts an illegal war – out of megalomania or whatever it may be – deserves to be treated as a criminal,” Ferencz said.
The brutality of the war in Ukraine is difficult to bear. Can it go unpunished? Can peace even be lasting if it's not followed by justice? And can those responsible be pinned down? SWI swissinfo.ch journalist Elena Servettaz put these questions to various representatives of international justice.
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Carla Del Ponte: Putin's crime of aggression 'has already been proven'
This content was published on Jan 19, 2023 Jan 19, 2023
Former international prosecutor Carla Del Ponte says Russian President Vladimir Putin is responsible for the crime of aggression in Ukraine.
Former Swiss federal prosecutor Carla Del Ponte investigated war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda in her role with the UN. She agrees with Ferencz: Putin's biggest crime was the invasion in and of itself.“He is a war criminal, without a doubt,” she says. However, a major challenge could be getting the Russian president into a court – especially since Russia's veto on the UN Security Council makes a special tribunal unlikely.
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Beth Van Schaack: The war in Ukraine 'badly calls out for justice'
This content was published on Jan 19, 2023 Jan 19, 2023
There is only one man who can end the war in Ukraine, says the US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice.
Beth Van Schaack, US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, raises another problem.“The architects of this campaign of atrocities are in Russia,” she says – and they can be detained only when they leave the country.
That will take time. And precisely this point is common to all our interviews with legal specialists: justice requires patience. The core of every prosecution case is built on hard evidence. As Geneva lawyer Philippe Currat explains,“crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide are highly complex criminal acts. They are the result of many actions, carried out by many people”.
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Philippe Currat: Putting Putin on trial is 'bit of a fantasy'
This content was published on Jan 19, 2023 Jan 19, 2023
Can Vladimir Putin be brought to justice for the crimes of Russian soldiers in Ukraine? Geneva lawyer Philippe Currat is sceptical.
Since June 2022 Switzerland has been gathering witness reports from fleeing Ukrainians, in order to be ready for any eventual trials or requests for legal assistance. The Swiss Office of the Attorney General has also set up a taskforce on Ukraine and Russia with a focus on international criminal law.
“Of course the time will come for justice, but when? And before which court?” asks lawyer François Zimeray, who has investigated various war crimes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He sees no chance for the time being of prosecuting Russian crimes at the international level. A tribunal organised by Ukraine itself, on the other hand, is fully legitimate.
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François Zimeray: 'Can real justice exist without peace?'
This content was published on Jan 19, 2023 Jan 19, 2023
Justice for Ukraine remains a long way off, reckons lawyer and former French diplomat François Zimeray.
Irwin Cotler is a former lawyer for Nelson Mandela and former Attorney General of Canada. He currently works with a network of NGOs trying to set up a special tribunal on Ukraine. He hopes Switzerland can play a part.“The international community did not act when Russia invaded Chechnya, nor when it marched into Georgia, nor when it annexed Crimea, nor when it bombed Syria,” Cotler says. This may have emboldened Putin in his decision to invade Ukraine.
Cotler is the only expert interviewed in our series who sees the Russian aggression as a possible genocide, in part due to the“direct and public incitement to genocide”.
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Explainer: International crimes and the Ukraine war
This content was published on Jan 19, 2023 Jan 19, 2023
Debate is heating up over a possible special tribunal to look into the Russian aggression in Ukraine. We take a look at various international crimes.
But what is genocide? And how are crimes of aggression defined by international law? Some atrocities are difficult to categorise clearly. In the final part of our international justice series, SWI swissinfo.ch journalist Julia Crawford looks at definitions of international crimes and some examples of how they have been tried in the past.
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Join the discussion
Foreign affairs
ddress class='si-teaser__author uk-text-uppercase'>Elena Servettaz
What distinguishes war crimes from other criminal offences?
Should war crimes be tried as criminal offences? Join the discussion!
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on inside geneva host imogen foulkes puts big questions facing the world to the experts working to tackle them in international geneva.