Ukraine institutes proceedings against the Russian Federation before the International Court of Justice and requests the Court to indicate provisional measure

 

Pix Credit:

Ukraine Moves ICJ, Argues 'Russia Manipulated Notion Of Genocide To Justify Aggression'

 

The Ukraine has instituted proceedings against the Russian Federation before the International Court of Justice and requests the Court to indicate provisional measures. Irrespective of its success, its interposition will contribute significantly to a transformative of the normative and discursive terrains of the legitimacy of state violence. More importantly it suggests the way that the corruption of the concept of genocide has now been weaponized, broadened, and at the same time trivialized. In the process the concept is losing its power except as a projectile in hot and cold wars for territory and normative supremacy (the argument has been made elsewhere and in another context HERE). Rather than me botching a summary, it is more efficient to reproduce the text of the Press Release of 27 February of the ICJ (Note: The Court’s press releases are prepared by its Registry for information purposes only and do not constitute official documents.):

No. 2022/4 27 February 2022

Ukraine institutes proceedings against the Russian Federation and requests the Court to indicate provisional measures

THE HAGUE, 27 February 2022. On 26 February 2022, Ukraine filed an application instituting proceedings against the Russian Federation before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, concerning “a dispute . . . relating to the interpretation, application and fulfilment of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” (the “Genocide Convention”). 

In its Application, Ukraine contends, inter alia, that

“the Russian Federation has falsely claimed that acts of genocide have occurred in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts of Ukraine, and on that basis recognized the so -called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ and ‘Luhansk People’s Republic’, and then declared and implemented a ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine”.

Ukraine “emphatically denies” that such genocide has occurred and states that it submitted the Application “to establish that Russia has no lawful basis to take action in and against Ukraine for the purpose of preventing and punishing any purported genocide”.

In the Application, Ukraine also accuses the Russian Federation of “planning acts of genocide in Ukraine” and contends that Russia “is intentionally killing and inflicting serious injury on members of the Ukrainian nationality  the actus reus of genocide under Article II of the [Genocide] Convention”.

The Applicant seeks to found the Court’s jurisdiction on Article 36, paragraph 1, of the Statute of the Court and on Article IX of the Genocide Convention, to which both States are parties.

Together with the Application, Ukraine filed a Request for the indication of provisional
measures, pursuant to Article 41 of the Statute of the Court and Articles 73, 74 and 75 of the Rules of Court, in which it requests the Court to indicate provisional measures “in order to prevent irreparable prejudice to the rights of Ukraine and its people and to avoid aggravating or extending the dispute between the parties under the Genocide Convention”.

Pursuant to Article 74 of the Rules of Court, “[a] request for the indication of provisional
measures shall have priority over all other cases”.

 ___________

The Application instituting proceedings and Request for the indication of provisional measures are available on the Court’s website.

Reflections will follow in a future post;for now the (1) TEXT OF THE APPLICATION ; and REQUEST FOR THE INDICATION OF PROVISIONAL MEASURES SUBMITTED BY UKRAINE (both available on the Court’s website.) also follow below.