The Human Rights Institute of the Ukrainian Bar Association (UBAHRI), the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and Truth Hounds cordially invite you to join the webinar.

• Date: 8 December, at 16.00 – 18.00 Kyiv / 09.00 – 11.00 NY / 15.00 – 17.00 CET 
• Co-organizers: Human Rights Institute of the Ukrainian Bar Association (UBAHRI), International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Truth Hounds
• Format: online (Zoom)
• Languages: English/ Ukrainian, with simultaneous interpretation 

Overview

According to some estimates, currently, there are around 43 armed conflicts globally. Many of them, including some situations of military occupation, have been ongoing for decades. In searching for ways to address these situations, two difficult sets of issues are intertwined: avenues to secure peace – and ways to ensure the prosecution of international crimes, which, unfortunately, almost inevitably accompany armed conflicts.

Our understanding of and international law on the duty to act upon atrocity crimes have matured significantly in the recent decades. Treaty and customary international law supports amnesties to end hostilities. However, only narrow amnesties, applicable to sedition rather than commission of international crimes, are allowed. While many initial domestic prosecutions of junta-era atrocities across Latin America were followed by amnesty laws, the latter were consistently invalidated by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACtHR). In its seminal cases such as Velasquez Rodríguez v. Honduras, Barrios Altos v. Peru and Almonacid-Arellano v. Chile, not only has the IACtHR emphasised the non-applicability of amnesties to international crimes and serious human rights violations. The Court has also clarified that states’ obligation to investigate such acts in good faith extends to the situations where such atrocities were committed by non-governmental actors. The IACtHR has further importantly explained the wider spectrum of persons affected by international crimes and serious human rights violations, beyond the immediate victims. Such persons, from relatives to indigenous communities to, indeed, a whole conflict-affected society have the right to truth, which emerges from diligent investigation.

Despite the mentioned developments, encroachments on the obligation to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of international crimes persist. Already during the initial 2014-2021 phase of its aggression against Ukraine, Russia demanded full amnesties for its proxies and direct agents. Since the 2022 full-scale invasion, the discontinuation of prosecutions into Russian atrocities appears to be among the main demands for a ceasefire. The intensity of these demands has become so concerning recently that several leading actors – including the UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, the Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights – have made statements that justice is not a hindrance, but a pre-condition to sustainable peace.

Questions for discussion:

• How has the practice of amnesties in armed conflicts and atrocity situations evolved globally?
• How, if at all, might a peace treaty deal on non-prosecuting international crimes impact the workings of the ICC in a respective situation?
• How has the connection between the duty to prosecute international crimes and the right to truth evolved? What tangible impacts has it had in practice, for affected communities?
• How is the duty to prosecute connected with an obligation to pay reparations – interstates ones and those owed to victims and survivors?
• Given the number of armed conflicts globally and proposals to cede justice for a ceasefire, where does the concept of prevention stand nowadays?

Moderators:

• Kateryna Busol, Legal Advisor, International Center for Transitional Justice; Associate Professor of Law, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
• Inna Liniova, Director of the Human Rights Institute, Ukrainian Bar Association

Speakers:

• Juan Méndez, Professor of Human Rights Law, American University – Washington College of Law; first UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide; former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment
• Anna Myriam Roccatello, Deputy Executive Director and Director of Programs, International Center for Transitional Justice
• René Fernando Urueña Hernández, Professor of International Law, University of Los Andes; Special Adviser on Complementarity to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
• Maksym Vishchyk, Legal Advisor, International Law Research Coordinator and Deputy Mobile Justice Team Lead, Global Rights Compliance; Senior Lecturer, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

Prior registration is MANDATORY to participate.

REGISTRATION

If you wish, you can make a charitable contribution and support the activities of the Ukrainian Bar Association.

SUPPORT

For additional information about the event, please contact Daria Lupiichuk at +380 (97) 256-30-41 or gr@uba.ua. 

P.S. For the purposes of this event, the joint controllers of personal data are the co-organizers of the webinar in accordance with the UBA Regulation on the processing and protection of personal data.