The Deputy Minister of Justice of Lithuania Gabija Grigaitė-Daugirdė considers the talks about whether Ukraine will gather the necessary number of votes for a resolution in the UN General Assembly on the creation of a full-fledged tribunal to punish Putin and his subordinates for the crime of aggression as "speculations".
Gabija Grigaitė-Daugirdė told about this in an interview with Babel.
"The question of the tribunal can be brought to the General Assembly only once. And get the required number of votes from the first time. In my opinion, talk about whether Ukraine will collect the required number of votes is speculation. Because we will never know for sure until the vote. We need to work, communicate with countries, explain, be open to discussion," Gabija Grigaitė-Daugirdė explained.
She noted that she talks about the tribunal at every meeting with representatives of other countries: "Sometimes there are rumors that some country will not vote for a full-fledged international tribunal, and then in the conversation you understand that this is not the case. I think that this discourse is created in order to deprive [Ukraine] of confidence."
Gabija Grigaitė-Daugirdė also emphasizes that each member of the General Assembly has only one vote, so if small countries are ready and there is interregional support for the tribunal, then the vote can be successful.
"Ukraine has already done this several times. For example, when they voted for the creation of the Register of Damages or for the Peace Formula. There were also rumors then that Ukraine would not get enough votes, but it did. It is only necessary to have a clear road map for the tribunal and to carry out explanatory work," added Gabija Grigaitė-Daugirdė.
What are the difficulties with the trial of Putin
Ukraine has been working for more than a year and a half to create a special tribunal for the crime of aggression and bring Putin and other high-ranking Russian officials to justice there. In order to overcome Putinʼs presidential immunity, as well as for the tribunal to be legitimate, it must be supported by the worldʼs leading democracies, primarily the United States — and they are not against it, but not in the format that Ukraine needs.
Ukraine insists on an international tribunal, and the US supports an internationalized tribunal, which will be part of the Ukrainian judicial system, but with the involvement of international prosecutors. National courts cannot overcome the immunity of the head of state, but the US does not want to set a precedent that will lead to an investigation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, international lawyer Philip Sands, one of the authors of the Rome Statute, believes that there will be no precedent, since the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution regarding Ukraine, in which Russiaʼs actions were condemned as an act of aggression, while there was no such document regarding Iraq.