On March 3 in Lviv President Egils Levits, as a high-level international law expert, was invited to speak at the international conference "United for justice". “The war of aggression started by Russia presents existential threats to international peace and security and the rules-based international order. Such behaviour must be met with the most determined response, because aggression towards another sovereign state is not tolerated. Silence from the international community would be a ‘green light’ to every dictator in the world”, said E. Levits.
President Levits emphasized that international law forbids an aggressive war, however, currently no international court can exercise jurisdiction over the crime of Russia’s aggression committed against Ukraine. E. Levits also pointed out that those responsible for Russia's crimes against Latvia had never been brought to justice, but now it is time to remedy such a deficiency in international law.
President of Latvia explained that over the last decades the international community has nevertheless found ways to address atrocity crimes to ensure accountability and justice: "For example, the international tribunals for former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cambodia and others, that investigated and tried war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes against peace. However, no mechanism can currently exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression. This is unacceptable because the crime of aggression is the root cause of other major international crimes".
President Levits emphasized, that we must hold Russia accountable for its crimes, from the Russian leadership to every soldier who kills, rapes, loots and destroys. “International law mechanism we create must be able to ensure accountability of the Russian leadership”, said Latvian President, pointing out, that “Latvia alongside other like-minded States believes that an ad hoc international tribunal under the auspices of the UN can ensure accountability of top Russian leadership”.
It should be noted that on 2 March 2022 the United Nations General Assembly condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, thus determining that there has been an aggression.
The establishment of an international tribunal is legally possible, all is required is political will. According to the President of Latvia, the political will to create a special international tribunal is growing among democracies, as evidenced by the European Parliament resolution of 19 January and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe resolution of 26 January this year.
The establishment of special international tribunal is needed in order to do justice to Ukraine and not to damage the standard of international law already reached in 1945 by UN Charter, which forbids aggressive wars. “Otherwise, the world would fall back into military anarchy, and no one would want to live in such a world. Establishing such a tribunal is in the interest not only of Ukraine, but of the whole international community”, said E. Levits.
In conclusion, the President of Latvia encouraged the participants to exchange ideas on how to address the accountability of Belarus, as Belarus has allowed Russia to use its territory to perpetrate an act of aggression against Ukraine.
The speech of the President of Latvia, Egils Levits, at the conference "United for Justice" can be found here: https://www.president.lv/lv/jaunums/valsts-prezidenta-egila-levita-runa-konference-vienoti-taisnigumam-lviva
