Annalena Berbock, Germany's foreign minister, said in The Hague that such a "tribunal would be able to investigate and try Russian leaders" for the crime of aggression, which the International Criminal Court, which is investigating separate Russian war crimes in Ukraine, cannot currently do.
"Putin must know that his aggression will not pass without consequences," Burbok said at the Hague Academy of International Law on January 16.
She emphasized that such a tribunal would only deal with the crime of aggression in addition to what other international courts do.
The Dutch government had previously supported the idea of such a special tribunal and agreed to its location on its territory.
According to Annalena Burbok, the special tribunal would use Ukrainian laws, but would be international: "located outside Ukraine with the financial support of partners and with the involvement of international prosecutors and judges to guarantee its impartiality and legitimacy."
Experts now say that with the increase in international support, the possibility of creating a special international tribunal for Russia's aggression against Ukraine is increasing, but implementation will not be easy.
"Yes, the tribunal is coming," says Marieke de Goon, who specializes in international law at the University of Amsterdam.
But at the same time, she and other lawyers and politicians admit that the tribunal will probably have to try the suspects in absentia, since it is currently difficult to imagine that there is an authority in Moscow that would recognize international laws and agree to extradite Vladimir Putin or other high-ranking Russian officials for trial and punishment .
"It is about people like Putin and the ministers of foreign affairs and defense, maybe other military commanders - about a small group of people who decided to start such a war," Marike de Goon told Dutch public broadcaster NOS.
Iryna Marchuk, a professor of international law at the University of Copenhagen, points out that "there have been no analogues of such a tribunal since the time of the
Back in November 2022, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, spoke in favor of the creation of an international tribunal regarding Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The French government also came out in support of such a tribunal.
The idea of a special tribunal has strong supporters among high-profile lawyers and politicians in the UK, but the government in London has not yet officially announced its support for the creation of the tribunal.
The US position on the special tribunal has also not yet been determined, but State Department representative Beth Van Skaak previously told VOA that Russia's aggression against Ukraine is no different from the aggressive actions of Germany or Japan during World War II.
“World War II was a classic international military conflict in which Germany and Japan invaded sovereign states to annex their territories. We are seeing the same thing now. Likewise, we see that systemic violations are not just the actions of some exiles or individual units, but the responsibility must go to the highest command, because we see these violations everywhere, where Russian forces operate," said Beth Van Skaak.
She expressed support for the work of the International Criminal Court regarding crimes committed during the Russian war in Ukraine, although the US is not a signatory to the Rome Statute - the international agreement on the establishment of the court.
Ukraine has signed the Rome Statute, but has not yet ratified it, agreeing in 2014 to special jurisdiction for the court conducting the investigation in Ukraine.
Moscow withdrew its signature under the Rome Statute in 2016 after the International Criminal Court made public initial data on its investigations into Russia's aggressive actions on Ukrainian territory.
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