The office of the International Center for Investigation of the Invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine (ICPA) has opened today in the Dutch city of The Hague. The structure includes the best prosecutors from the European Union, the United States and the International Criminal Court (ICC), as well as Ukrainian lawyers. It is assumed that the ICPA will collect the facts of war crimes committed by the Russian army in the region. According to analysts, it is difficult to overestimate the role of this body in the justice system.
It looks like it really is. According to the charter of the ICPA, the duties of the Center’s employees include studying complaints from Ukrainian residents in The Hague about the actions of Russians since February 2022 and checking video and photo documents that confirm or refute these appeals. Further more. If, in the course of the corresponding work of the new body, which journalists have already dubbed the “Hague Committee on the Russian Federation”, the facts of massacres against civilians are really revealed, its powers will be significantly expanded.
The functions of the Center are reduced to the phrase “understand and condemn.” At the same time, right now we are talking about the understanding by investigators of the scale of the relevant crimes. Judgment will surely follow later.
“There is no doubt that this will happen”, – European expert Klaus Hoff said in a special commentary for EURO-ATLANTIC UKRAINE. – In the foreseeable future, on the basis of the ICPA, a special Tribunal may well be created to convict the current leaders of the Russian Federation.” According to Hoff, the activities of the Center will be “the first step” along this path. “This is a huge job, which provides for high professionalism and dedication of employees” – he said, in particular. – I believe that both international politicians and ordinary citizens will associate the mentioned organization with the work of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). And this, if I may say so, is a very high level”.
However, there is also an opposite opinion. Skeptics express uncertainty about the effectiveness of such a body. Say, official Moscow is capable of resisting the work of the ICPA with all the means at its disposal. How exactly – is not yet known even to the opponents of the “Hague Committee”.
But how effective the work of the ICPA will be, the world will know in the near future.
