The International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA) officially started its work in The Hague.
The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine informed about this on July 3.
Ukrainian prosecutors will work in the center. Representatives of the Joint Investigative Team (JIT) from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Romania will join them in the work of the center at the initial stage. The US special prosecutor for crimes of aggression will support the centerʼs activities.
Other countries and institutions will be able to join in the coming months. Countries that have information or evidence related to the investigation of the crime of aggression against Ukraine can also request to participate.
The center was placed on the basis of the facilities of Eurojust, a European agency that cooperates with the judicial and police authorities of the EU member states. The center is financed by the European Commission.
What will ICPA do?
Thanks to the center, prosecutors from different countries will be able to collaborate daily in a single place, quickly and efficiently exchange evidence and agree on a joint strategy for investigation and prosecution. The Center will participate in any future prosecution for the crime of aggression.
ICPA participants will receive individual operational, technical, logistical and financial support from Eurojust. The Core International Crimes Evidence Database (CICED), managed by Eurojust, will assist the centre. Evidence that has already been submitted to this database in the context of other international crimes (crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes) may be relevant for the investigation of the crime of aggression.
The location of the center in The Hague has several advantages. ICPA will not only have direct access to the files of the Genocide Network Secretariat held at Eurojust, but will also be able to closely cooperate and interact with the International Criminal Court.
- The Hague will create a register of everything destroyed by Russiaʼs war in Ukraine, so that Russia will pay for what it has done.
- In March 2023, it became known that the International Criminal Court is opening its representative office in Ukraine.