Processes for the implementation of the provisions of the Rome Statute of the ICC: a roundtable discussion was held at the Supreme Court

At the initiative of the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court, a roundtable discussion was held in which Supreme Court judges, representatives of law enforcement agencies and academics discussed the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The participants focused on three key issues:

• application of Art. 442-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in the context of acts committed earlier;
• the concept of ‘command responsibility’;
• the expediency of adopting a separate law on war crimes.

The adoption of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Amendments to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine in connection with the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and amendments thereto’, introduced by the President of Ukraine, was an important step towards the establishment of an effective national mechanism for the prosecution of international crimes.  

The Criminal Code of Ukraine was supplemented with new articles, in particular, Article 33-1, which deals with the concept of command responsibility, and Article 442-1, which provides for liability for crimes against humanity.

As a result of the discussion, the participants welcomed the addition of the article on command responsibility to the criminal law, but stressed that there is a need to improve the legislative regulation. After all, the possibility of bringing commanders to justice for war crimes committed by their subordinates was previously provided for in the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The existing tools in the criminal law were sufficient to bring to justice all those who committed the relevant crimes, and the appearance of a separate article in the Code is a specification of the very concept of command responsibility.

With regard to crimes against humanity, the participants focused on the possibility of criminalising previous acts under this article. In particular, in this context, it was noted that there are decisions on similar legal situations in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. This refers to the ECHR judgement in the case of Kononov v. Latvia. 

The participants supported the legislative step of implementing the Rome Statute of the ICC without adopting a separate law. It is the path initiated by the legislator, which consists in improving the current criminal law, rather than adopting another special criminal law that would only deal with liability for war crimes, that is the right step in improving the existing provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.