On Tuesday, April 2, at the Conference "Restoring Justice for Ukraine" held in The Hague, representatives of 44 Governments signed a political declaration supporting the establishment of a special tribunal for crimes of aggression, as well as initiatives to use Russia's frozen assets for the benefit of Ukraine - the Netherlands is ready to host the special tribunal.
Information about this is available on the Dutch Government's portal.
The Declaration directly condemns Russia and calls for an immediate end to the war against Ukraine:
"We call on the Russian Federation to immediately cease its war of aggression against Ukraine and recall in this regard the legally binding Order of the International Court of Justice of 16 March 2022 to immediately suspend its military operations."
The document also notes that the participants remain committed to strengthening collective action to ensure accountability for all violations of international law:
"...we remain committed to enhancing collective action to ensure accountability for all violations of international law committed in or against Ukraine, including violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law, which may amount to international crimes, and wish to ensure that our common effort will promote effective actions and increased coordination to address such violations, including both judicial and broader transitional justice approaches as appropriate."
The countries re-affirm their intention to work on the establishment of a special tribunal to bring Russia to justice for its crimes in Ukraine:
"We remain committed, in the context of the Core Group in which many of our Governments participate, to work towards the establishment of a special tribunal for the investigation and prosecution of the crime of aggression against Ukraine, that would contribute to accountability of the highest levels of military and political leadership."
The participants point to the significant progress made in this regard and call on the States concerned to step up their own efforts to ensure a solid legal framework and broad international support to complete the process.
In addition, the document also states that they welcome the conditional offer of the Netherlands to host the special tribunal on its territory.
In total, the conference brought together 57 participating countries. The total number of countries that signed the political declaration includes the following:
- Albania,
- Andorra,
- Andorra, Australia,
- Austria,
- Belgium,
- Bosnia and Herzegovina,
- Bulgaria,
- Canada,
- Croatia, Canada, Croatia,
- Cyprus,
- Czech Republic,
- Denmark,
- Estonia,
- Finland,
- France,
- Georgia,
- Germany,
- Greece,
- Iceland,
- Ireland,
- Italy,
- Japan,
- Latvia,
- Liechtenstein,
- Lithuania,
- Luxembourg,
- Malta,
- Moldova,
- Monaco,
- Montenegro,
- Netherlands,
- New Zealand,
- North Macedonia,
- Norway,
- Poland,
- Portugal,
- Romania,
- San Marino,
- Slovenia,
- Spain,
- Sweden,
- Ukraine,
- United Kingdom,
- the USA.
Earlier, we wrote that the military leadership of the Netherlands has warned the population of a serious threat of war with the Russian Federation.