World Court says Ukraine genocide case against Russia can proceed
- The top UN court ruled it had jurisdiction over most of the points made by Kyiv, but not over whether Moscow’s invasion contravened the Genocide Convention
- The ICJ had ordered in March 2022 for the invasion to be halted immediately, but Russia had argued that the court had no legal right to decide in this case
The United Nations’ top court said on Friday that a case brought by Ukraine against Russia over the brutal 2022 invasion could go ahead after ruling it had jurisdiction over most of the points made by Kyiv.
Ukraine dragged Russia before the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, only a few days after the invasion, seeking to battle its neighbour on all fronts, legal as well as diplomatic and military.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on February 24, 2022, part of his argument was that pro-Russian people in eastern Ukraine had been “subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime”.
Ukraine filed a suit at the ICJ, “emphatically denying” this and arguing that Russia’s use of “genocide” as a pretext for invasion went against the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
In a preliminary ruling in March 2022, the ICJ sided with Ukraine and ordered Russia to halt its invasion immediately. But Russia objected to this judgment, saying the ICJ, which decides on disputes between states, had no legal right to decide in this case.
