The Attorney General of Great Britain, Victoria Prentis, hopes that the International Court of Justice of the United Nations will continue to consider Ukraineʼs lawsuit against Russia regarding the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide.
As the correspondent of "Babel" Oksana Kovalenko reports, she stated this at the court hearing, where representatives of 32 countries, which entered the case on the side of Ukraine, read their arguments in favor of the Ukrainian lawsuit.
“If the court moves forward, and we very much hope it does, to the next stage of this litigation, weʼre going to have to work through the arguments (on the merits of the case) one by one. I think some of those arguments will be novel," Prentis said.
She noted that the Genocide Convention is an important treaty that obliges States to prevent and punish genocide.
"Along with 31 other intervening states, the United Kingdom has demonstrated its commitment to the proper interpretation and application of the provisions of this Convention," added the prosecutor.
In her address to the justices, Prentis emphasized that the court has jurisdiction over the case. Part of her statement concerned whether Russia had the right to launch a full-scale invasion, citing the protection of the people of Donbas.
"It is impossible to imagine that a state that fulfills its obligations to prevent genocide in good faith can do so through aggression or other international crimes," the official stressed.
- Ukraine filed a genocide lawsuit against the Russian Federation on February 26, 2022, two days after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion. The Kremlin accused Kyiv of "genocide" of Donbas residents and used it as a basis for the invasion on February 24, 2022.
- On September 18, the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague resumed hearings on Ukraineʼs claim against Russia regarding the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
- The Russian delegation had the floor on September 18 and tried to prove to the court that the court did not have jurisdiction to consider this case, and the subject of the dispute was allegedly absent. Ukraine will perform on September 19 and 27, and Russia will perform again on September 25.
- During the speech of the Ukrainian delegation, Anton Korynevych, Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, stated that the court has jurisdiction to consider the lawsuit against Russia. He added that if the court proceeds to the merits of the case and makes a decision, it will affect other proceedings in various courts and instances related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the crimes it committed there.