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The Independent International Commission of Inquiry in Ukraine is a United Nations commission of inquiry established by the United Nations Human Rights Council on 4 March 2022 with a mandate to investigate violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. [1] [2] The Commission delivered its reports on 18 October 2022 [3] and 16 March 2023. [4]
On 3 March 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) started debating the effect of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on human rights. [5] On 4 March, in resolution A/HRC/49/L.1, the UNHRC condemned the violations of human rights and international law caused by the full-scale Russian invasion, called for Russia to stop its violations in Ukraine, and for Russia to completely withdraw from internationally recognised Ukrainian territory to prevent further violations, and voted to establish an independent international commission of inquiry on Ukraine. The UNHRC passed the resolution with 32 states in favour, 13 absentions and 2 (Eritrea and Russia) against. [2] [1]
The Russian representative on the UNHRC, Evgeny Ustinov, called the commission of inquiry "a mere waste of resources, which could better be used to help civilians in Ukraine". [6] Human Rights Watch expressed its support for the UNHRC to create a commission of inquiry into violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Ukraine by all groups involved. [7]
The commission of inquiry was initially set up to include three human rights experts for one year, [2] [1] headed by Erik Møse from Norway, and also including Jasminka Džumhur from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Pablo de Greiff from Colombia. [8]
The goal of the commission was to investigate all alleged violations and abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The commission was required to make recommendations based on its investigation, first in September 2022 [8] to the 51st and 52nd sessions of the UNHRC and the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly. [2]
On 18 October 2022, the Commission published its report on events between the end of February and March 2022 in the four regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Sumy. The Commission found that Russian armed forces were responsible for the great majority of human rights and international humanitarian law violations, but that Ukrainian forces also violated international humanitarian law, notably in two incidents that qualified as war crimes. [3]
In a March 2023 report, the Commission found that Russia had committed numerous violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in Ukraine, and that many of these breaches constituted war crimes. [9] [10] Evidence gathered by the Commission included:
The Ukrainian government responded to inquiries from the commission; the Russian authorities refused to cooperate. [10]
The report concluded: "that Russian authorities have committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law and violations of international human rights law, in addition to a wide range of war crimes," These included that of excessive incidental death, injury or damage, wilful killings, torture, inhuman treatment, unlawful confinement, rape, and unlawful transfers and deportations. The commission also found that torture by Russians and the waves of Russian airstrikes starting 10 October 2022 on Ukraine's energy infrastructure might amount to crimes against humanity. [10]
On 25 September 2023, Commission Chair Erik Møse delivered an update at the 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council, saying "The Commission is also concerned about allegations of genocide in Ukraine. For instance, some of the rhetoric transmitted in Russian state and other media may constitute incitement to genocide. The Commission is continuing its investigations on such issues." [11]
Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as foreign nationals. Together with war crimes, genocide, and the crime of aggression, crimes against humanity are one of the core crimes of international criminal law, and like other crimes against international law have no temporal or jurisdictional limitations on prosecution.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. The headquarters of the Council are at the United Nations Office at Geneva in Switzerland.
Lyal S. Sunga is a well-known specialist on international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law.
UN Watch is a Geneva-based non-governmental organization (NGO) whose stated mission is "to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter". It is an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic and Social Council and an Associate NGO to the UN Department of Public Information.
The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, also known as the Goldstone Report, was a United Nations fact-finding mission established in April 2009 pursuant to Resolution A/HRC/RES/S-9/1 of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) of 12 January 2009, following the Gaza War as an independent international fact-finding mission "to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by the occupying Power, Israel, against the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, due to the current aggression". South African jurist Richard Goldstone was appointed to head the mission. The other co-authors of the Report were Hina Jilani, Christine Chinkin and Desmond Travers.
The Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka was a 2011 report produced by a panel of experts appointed by United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) Ban Ki-moon to advise him on the issue of accountability with regard to any alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War. The report is referred to by some as the Darusman Report, after the name of the chairman of the panel.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic was set up by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on 22 August 2011 to investigate human rights violations during the Syrian Civil War to establish the facts and circumstances that may amount to violations and crimes and, where possible, to identify those responsible to be held accountable with a future prosecution of Syrian civil war criminals. The Commission posts regular updates via its official Twitter page.
Michael Benedict Emmerson CBE KC is a British barrister, specialising in public international law, human rights and humanitarian law, and international criminal law. From 2011 to 2017, he was the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism. Emmerson is currently an Appeals Chamber Judge of the UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals sitting on the Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He has previously served as Special Adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and Special Adviser to the Appeals Chamber of the ECCC.
The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict was a United Nations fact-finding mission established by a resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on 23 July 2014 to investigate "all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law ... in the context of the military operations conducted since 13 June 2014" in the Palestinian territories, particularly the Gaza Strip, during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict.
During the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War between the Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region of Ukraine that began in April 2014, many international organisations and states noted a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the conflict zone.
Russian war crimes are violations of international criminal law including war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide which the official armed and paramilitary forces of Russia have been accused of committing since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. These accusations have also been extended to the aiding and abetting of crimes which have been committed by proto-statelets or puppet statelets which are armed and financed by Russia, including the Luhansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic. These war crimes have included murder, torture, terrorism, deportation and forced transfer, abduction, rape, looting, unlawful confinement, unlawful airstrikes and attacks against civilian objects, use of banned chemical weapons, and wanton destruction.
The EHRC–OHCHR Tigray investigation is a human rights investigation launched jointly by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in mid-2021 into human rights violations of the Tigray War that started in November 2020. The EHRC–OHCHR joint investigation team's report was published on 3 November 2021.
Following the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted on 27 May 2021 to set up a United Nations fact-finding mission to investigate possible war crimes and other abuses committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The United Nations Independent Commission on the 2018 Gaza border protests was an independent commission of the United Nations created by the United Nations Human Rights Council on 18 May 2018 to investigate the Israeli response to Palestinian refugee protests in the Gaza Strip. Israel was investigated for its use of tear gas and live rounds against demonstrating Gazans.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Russian military and authorities have committed war crimes, such as deliberate attacks against civilian targets ; indiscriminate attacks on densely-populated areas ; abduction, torture and murder of civilians; forced deportations; sexual violence ; destruction of cultural heritage; and mistreatment, torture, mutilation and murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine violated international law. The invasion has also been called a crime of aggression under international criminal law, and under some countries' domestic criminal codes – including those of Ukraine and Russia – although procedural obstacles exist to prosecutions under these laws.
Sexual violence in the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been committed by Armed Forces of Russia, including the use of mass rape as a weapon of war. According to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, the victims of sexual assault by Russian soldiers ranged from 4 years old to over 80 years old.
During the Russo-Ukrainian War, national parliaments including those of Poland, Ukraine, Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ireland declared that genocide was taking place. Scholars and commentators including Eugene Finkel, Timothy D. Snyder and Gregory Stanton; and legal experts such as Otto Luchterhandt and Zakhar Tropin, have made claims of varying degrees of certainty that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine. A comprehensive report by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights concluded that there exists a "very serious risk of genocide" in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The Makiivka surrender incident happened during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine in the village of Makiivka, Luhansk Oblast. Videos depict what appear to be at least ten Russian soldiers surrendering to four Ukrainian soldiers in Makiivka. Russian soldiers exit an outhouse one by one and lay facedown on the ground. Ukrainian soldiers appear relaxed with rifles pointed to the ground. Then an eleventh Russian soldier suddenly emerges and opens fire at the Ukrainians, catching them by surprise, a possible war crime of perfidy. In another video, there are about 12 dead visible on the footage. When the footage was taken, and who shot the footage, is currently unknown.
The International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) was established by the UN Human Rights Council in December 2021. The mandate of the commission is to investigate allegations of violations and abuses of international human rights law, humanitarian law and refugee law in Ethiopia committed since 3 November 2020 by all parties to the conflict. The Commission comprises three human rights experts and is appointed for a renewable one-year term. In October 2022 at the Human Rights Council's 51st session, the Commission's mandate was extended to December 2023.
