THE ROME STATUTE: TO RATIFY IMPOSSIBLE TO WAIT

Due to the recent expiration of a three-year delay in Ukraine’s ratification of the Rome Statute, some media has again called for the prompt ratification of this legal act by our state.

There is every reason to believe that the demands to Ukraine to urgently ratify the Rome Statute look manipulative at this stage and do not meet the national interests of Ukraine. Ukraine’s ratification of the Rome Statute without the prosecution of Russia for acts of aggression and terrorism, without removal of the Security Council of the UN from the influence on the Court (or without Russia’s removal from the UN Security Council), without Russia’s ratification of the Statute, may lead to situations when:

– neither the Russian policymakers nor their henchmen will not bear liability for crimes in the Crimea and Donbas (and can also get verdicts of not guilty!);

– our state will undertake obligations, that might be used by the aggressor state on a unilateral basis against us (and will be used, as it already has happened in Georgia`s case, that has ratified the Statute a while back);

– very important issues will be transferred to a very costly and inefficient judicial body (there are reasonable issues with the professional level of some representatives of it).

Oleksandr Chebanenko, the expert on the law enforcement and judicial systems reform programme of the UIF