Oleksandra Matviichuk (b. 1983) is a Ukrainian human rights lawyer and civil society chief primarily based in Kyiv. She heads the non-profit organisation Centre for Civil Liberties (Nobel Peace Prize receiver in 2022) and is a democratic reform campaigner.
She is Vice-President of the Worldwide Federation for Human Rights. This interview was performed on 16 July, through the Ukraine Restoration Convention 2025 in Rome.
Because the occupation of Crimea by unmarked Russian troopers in 2014, the European Union has imposed financial and authorized sanctions on Russia with the purpose of placing strain on the Kremlin. The sanctions had been boosted after the 2022 full-scale invasion. The creation of a Particular Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression in opposition to Ukraine, introduced in 2023 and supported politically and financially by the European Union, goals to fill a spot left by the Worldwide Legal Court docket, which can’t prosecute Moscow for the crime of aggression on account of jurisdictional limitations (Russia shouldn’t be a celebration to the Rome Statute on the ICC). The tribunal is predicted to be established by the tip of 2025 and will probably be tasked with judging the Russian political and navy elite deemed chargeable for the warfare.
Maryna Svitlychna: Why is a particular tribunal for the crime of aggression in opposition to Ukraine essential? Might the present establishments not be utilised as a substitute?
Oleksandra Matviichuk: As a result of there are not any current establishments that may prosecute Vladimir Putin and the highest political management and navy command of the Russian Federation for the crime of aggression. Even the Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC) has sadly no jurisdiction for the crime of aggression within the case of the Russian warfare of aggression in opposition to Ukraine. All of the crimes that we doc are the results of the choice to start out a warfare. That’s the reason a particular tribunal for aggression should be established with the intention to fill this hole in duty. And it is rather vital that (June 25), a historic settlement was signed between Ukraine and the Council of Europe, which marked the start of its institution.
Why is it vital to ascertain it now?
As a result of we stay within the twenty first century, and our process is to make sure that justice doesn’t rely on how and when the warfare ends. That is truly a revolutionary concept, though most individuals don’t understand how revolutionary it’s. If we wish to stop wars sooner or later, we should punish the states and their leaders who begin these wars now. And this feels like frequent sense. However there was just one such precedent in all the historical past of mankind: the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals. This was an vital step within the final century for the institution of legislation and justice. However remind that the Nuremberg Tribunal is a courtroom of the victors. That’s, it tried Nazi warfare criminals after their regime had fallen.
And as unhappy as it might be, such an unstated norm was set that justice is the privilege of the victors. However justice shouldn’t be a privilege. Justice is a primary human proper. And quite a bit has modified for the reason that Nuremberg Tribunal. However we, as Ukrainian civil society, Ukraine, and a lot of worldwide companions, needed to make monumental efforts to persuade the worldwide neighborhood that we should always not wait and mustn’t make justice depending on when and the way the warfare ends. Due to this fact, this particular tribunal should work now. If there’s a crime, if there are individuals who dedicated this crime, we all know them by identify, then there should be punishment.
The worldwide authorized framework is underneath nice strain due to alleged double requirements, do you suppose this may have an effect on the Ukrainian path in direction of justice?
For my part, there are not any double requirements, however there’s a constant violation of worldwide legislation and worldwide obligations undertaken by numerous international locations – not solely Western international locations. Let’s take our Ukrainian case and keep in mind how African international locations and Latin American international locations vote on the Basic Meeting, condemning Russian aggression. Or let’s keep in mind that when the Worldwide Legal Court docket introduced an arrest warrant for Putin and his Commissioner for Human Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, the President of South Africa in the identical 12 months invited President Putin to the BRICS summit, which was happening in his nation.
‘Un unstated norm was set that justice is the privilege of the victors. However justice shouldn’t be a privilege. Justice is a primary human proper’
That is even supposing South Africa filed a grievance with the Worldwide Court docket of Justice in regards to the genocide being dedicated in Gaza. On the identical time, South Africa additionally turns a blind eye to Russia’s aggressive warfare, declaring neutrality.
We are able to additionally recall the instance of Brazil, whose president refused to go to the worldwide peace summit organized by Ukraine in Switzerland, saying that the difficulty of peace can’t be mentioned with out Russia. However final 12 months he didn’t invite the Ukrainian delegation to the G20 summit, which came about in Brazil, and the place he mentioned the difficulty of peace solely with the Russian delegation within the absence of Ukraine. Nicely, these are the identical double requirements that the West is usually accused of. However we will see that international locations of the worldwide South do that. And for me, due to this fact, the issue is obvious, we have to cease calling it double requirements. We have to speak about the truth that international locations in numerous components of the world violate worldwide legislation and don’t tackle worldwide obligations, and relying on their political sympathies, select one technique or one other.
How do you personally keep resilient and motivated within the face of such immense challenges and emotional burdens when documenting atrocities?
I believe there are a number of issues that maintain me going. The primary is a way of duty. That is probably the most documented warfare within the historical past of mankind. Now we have in our database, which we’re conducting along with companions, greater than 88,000 episodes of warfare crimes. These are usually not simply numbers. Behind these numbers are particular human destinies. It’s actually essential to me that these tales don’t stay recorded solely in nationwide archives, however turn out to be the premise for justice and for returning to folks their names, violated rights and restoration of human dignity. I see this as my principal process. The second factor is that I do know that every one our efforts are significant, even supposing the problem we face is gigantic. If we do nothing, we is not going to obtain the long run we attempt for. Due to this fact, preventing for this future is all the time the perfect technique.
Do you suppose the European Union can do extra to cease atrocities?
There’s all the time extra to do. We’re grateful for his or her assist. And it actually helped Ukraine survive within the first months, within the first years of this full-scale warfare. As a result of the warfare itself has been happening for eleven years, it grew to become noticeable to the world solely in 2022, when the full-scale invasion started.
Nonetheless, there are a complete sequence of issues that must be executed now. I’ll identify only one: listed below are $300 billion in frozen Russian belongings. These are state funds which can be within the G7 international locations, along with Belgium. This quantity is way bigger than any complete assist that has been allotted to Ukraine through the years. It’s logical that the aggressor should pay for the injury triggered and that Russia will refuse to pay.
The frozen belongings will be transferred to a particular belief fund that can function with these belongings and use them to rebuild Ukraine, to supply compensation to these affected by Russian aggression, to buy weapons – that’s, for all the pieces that our European companions at the moment lack funds for. As we perceive, we can’t depend on American cash in any respect. However the funds have to return from someplace. Regardless of this pressing want, nothing has been executed to confiscate these belongings. There are solely two choices right here: both these belongings will probably be transferred for the needs of Ukraine, or these belongings will probably be transferred for the needs of Russia.
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There isn’t any third possibility, as a result of these funds are frozen on the premise of the sanctions regime, and each six months the international locations of the European Union should unanimously prolong it. It is rather straightforward to think about that, for instance, [Hungarian Prime minister Viktor] Orbán will block the extension of the sanctions regime. Which means that the funds should be returned to the Russian Federation, on the identical day. And I simply have a query: what are European international locations relying on? Are they able to make the biggest funding within the Russian navy machine within the type of 300 billion euros? It’s clear what Russia will use the funds it could get again for. Formally 40% of the Russian price range goes to navy spending.
What does it imply to stay within the occupied territories? A big a part of the Western public opinion doesn’t appear to have a transparent concept of it, and even think about the state of affairs.
Folks do not perceive what occupation is, and so they do not wish to delve into it, regardless of the actual fact that there’s a enormous quantity of knowledge. I am not even speaking about experiences from Ukrainian organizations. There are common UN experiences. These experiences might sounddry and bureaucratic, however you instantly perceive that occupation is not only altering one flag for one more: occupation is compelled disappearances, rape, unlawful imprisonment, the erasure of your identification, the compelled adoption of your kids, filtration camps and mass graves. That is all occupation.
You then come to the straightforward conclusion that occupation doesn’t cut back human struggling; it merely makes human struggling invisible, as a result of folks haven’t any solution to shield themselves. And occupation is identical as warfare. Even underneath worldwide humanitarian legislation, simply in a special type. For eleven years now, we have now been documenting the crimes dedicated by Russia within the occupied territory. I can illustrate the essence of the occupation with one particular instance: That is the story of the youngsters’s author Volodymyr Vakulenko. He wrote great works for Ukrainian kids, and a complete era of Ukrainian kids grew up on his Daddy’s E-book. He disappeared through the Russian occupation. I do know his household: till the final second they believed that he, like hundreds of different Ukrainian civilians, had merely been captured and was being illegally held in Russian captivity.
However when the Ukrainian military drove the Russians out of the Kharkiv area, we discovered mass graves within the forest close to the town of Izyum. And these had been graves the place there have been lots of of our bodies of males, girls, and kids. A few of them had their palms tied behind their backs. And in grave quantity 319, based on the outcomes of identification, it was established that the physique belonged to Volodymyr Vakulenko. He was tortured and overwhelmed. One can merely ask, why would the Russians kill a kids’s author? Nicely, as a result of they might do it. The essence of the occupation is that the Russians can do no matter they wish to an individual, simply because they will.
What are you able to say in regards to the Ukrainians who, within the briefly occupied territories, “collaborate” with the Russian forces?
Nicely, that is typically a really tough query to reply merely. As a result of, on the one hand, Ukrainian laws should draw some crimson strains: there’s a enormous distinction between residing within the occupied territories and even finishing up sure orders coming from the occupation authorities with the intention to survive. This should be handled with understanding, like, for instance, the compelled imposition of Russian citizenship, with out which you’ll merely be deported from your house after some time as a result of they are going to say that you’re not a citizen of Russia, and all the pieces that has been seized is already Russian land.
Alternatively, individuals who participate in warfare crimes, who contribute to the occupation in a approach that’s outlined as against the law by the Legal Code [of Ukraine], should clearly perceive that they are going to be held accountable, that [the Ukrainian authorities] is not going to flip a blind eye.
Some adjustments to the Legal Code [of Ukraine] had been made again in Might 2022, and established the articles on “collaborationism”. Nonetheless, Ukrainian human rights activists criticized these adjustments for not totally complying with worldwide requirements. The observe has since developed in a fairly differentiated and contradictory approach: on the one hand, we see individuals who ought to be persecuted, however they don’t seem to be: and however, we see individuals who, clearly, didn’t do something that may very well be thought-about strengthening the occupation regime by crimes, however for some purpose they ended up underneath felony proceedings. That is such an actual problematic space, which requires a extra balanced state coverage.
Every part in Russia’s behaviour appears to level to a long-lasting warfare, with brutal airstrikes throughout Ukraine designed to interrupt the spirit of the folks. Are Ukrainians ready for that? Are you?
I’m reminded right here of the Roman Stoics, who mentioned that many individuals thought-about themselves good solely as a result of their goodness was by no means examined. It is rather tough to stay throughout a full-scale invasion. And not one of the Ukrainians selected this warfare: it was Russia that began it. And we had been compelled to take up arms and defend ourselves, to defend our folks, our nation, our democratic selection.
‘If we can’t cease Putin in Ukraine, then he’ll go additional and he’ll assault another European nation’
On this warfare, we’re preventing for freedom in each sense: or the liberty to be an unbiased nation, not a Russian colony; for the liberty to protect our Ukrainian identification, and to not re-educate our personal kids as Russians; for the liberty to have a democratic selection, that’s, merely to stay and construct our nation in order that the rights of each individual on this nation are protected. And we’re paying the best worth merely for getting this opportunity to stay and construct a rustic the best way we wish as a result of Russia is waging warfare by a aware coverage of ache and struggling, as a result of it intentionally commits warfare crimes – and that’s the reason there are such a lot of of them that we’re documenting.
That is the best way Russia is making an attempt to win the warfare, making an attempt to interrupt folks’s resistance by ache and occupying the nation. Now we see that since greater than three years, regardless of the large burden, even supposing hundreds of thousands of persons are in ache, Ukrainians proceed to withstand, every one of their place. It’s onerous to say how lengthy Ukrainians can maintain on, as a result of the resilience that Ukrainians have clearly proven can’t be taken with no consideration.
Ukraine really wants assist. Even for pragmatic causes, as a result of if we can’t cease Putin in Ukraine, then he’ll go additional and he’ll assault another European nation. So it is a query not just for Ukrainians whether or not we can face up to this full-scale warfare. I’d tackle this query to the Europeans, who will then face a a lot greater drawback than merely allocating the following tranches of assist to Ukraine. As a result of they need to perceive proper now that they’re protected solely as a result of the Ukrainians proceed to combat.
