The event was co-organised by the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan, and the EU’s Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders. The conference’s guest of honour was Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who attended the event online. In The Hague, in person appeared Prosecutor General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova along with delegates of several dozen states, including representatives of EU member states, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and Australia. The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Poland was represented by Undersecretary of State Sebastian Kaleta.

In response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, a number of initiatives have been adopted by individual countries as well as groups of states and international organisations, which are tasked with fact-finding, collection of evidence, identification of perpetrators and holding them to account for violations of international law.

The investigation is also conducted in Poland. (Poland was one of the first countries to refer to the ICC Prosecutor the crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine by the Russian aggressor under Article 14 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.) The investigative team also includes experienced officers of the Internal Security Agency and the police. One of the team’s goals is to collect and secure evidence – testimonies by Ukrainian nationals staying in Poland as war refugees and victims of the war, who have knowledge about war crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine. More than 1200 pieces of evidence have been collected so far in the form of witnesses’ testimonies, including photos and video footage. The activity of the Polish Prosecutor’s Office is auxiliary in relation to the ICC’s main investigation.

Moreover, Poland is one of the founding members of a joint investigation team set up on 25 March 2022 with Ukraine and Lithuania, and later joined by the ICC Prosecutor, Latvia, Estonia, and Slovakia. In cooperation with Eurojust, the team coordinates collection and securing of evidence of crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine in order to hold the perpetrators criminally liable. The ICC prosecutor joining the team is of paramount importance as it allows the team’s output to be later used during the proceedings before the ICC.

The aim of The Hague conference was to reiterate the international community’s commitment to support Ukraine in administering justice against the perpetrators of most serious crimes. The event also provided an opportunity to coordinate efforts and set directions for further cooperation.

To conclude the conference, its participants adopted a political declaration which included key principles of enhanced cooperation, priority areas and actions to be taken to set the framework for future interventions to support efforts aimed at holding responsible the perpetrators of the committed crimes.

While in The Hague, Minister Rau also held bilateral meetings with the Netherlands’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, and Undersecretary at the US Department of State Uzra Zeya.

Łukasz Jasina

MFA Press Spokesperson

 

Photo: Sebastian Indra/MFA