Ukrainian investigators, first of all, have no experience of working with international law. But this is not the only reason.
The Ukrainian justice system is not able to cope with the to conduct an investigation into the crimes of Russia and its citizens on the territory of Ukraine, the expert in international criminal law, deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine in 2019-2021 states in his article for ZN.UA “In the footsteps of The Hague: why we need a hybrid mechanism of justice” Gunduz Mamedov.
“This is really a challenge, because in our investigative bodies there are not many people with high expertise specifically in the investigation of international crimes, and the number of registered crimes is increasing every day,” he points to one of the reasons.
In particular, profile the department in the Office of the Prosecutor General was created only in 2019, and before that in Ukraine at the state level investigations of serious violations of international humanitarian law were not systematically investigated.
Thus, most of the employees do not have experience in working with international legal documents and do not understand the specifics of evidence collection in conditions of armed conflict or without access to the crime scene.
“And here the international element can help us: the involvement of judges, prosecutors, investigators, experts who have many years of experience working specifically with international crimes”, – believes the former deputy prosecutor general.
Also, Mammadov notes that since February 24, the number of the number of war crimes and crimes of aggression registered by the justice authorities is approaching 30,000.
“It is obvious that the national justice system will not be able to cope with such a scale. In my opinion, a worthy response to this challenge is a hybrid mechanism of justice,” he offers a way out of the situation.
The hybrid mechanism of justice combines national and international elements at several levels: investigation, prosecutorial supervision, judicial practice . This will create an opportunity for Ukraine not only to punish those guilty of international crimes, but also to build an effective internal justice system.
At the same time, there is no need to prove Russia's direct involvement in crimes, as was the case from 2014 to 2022, because its participation in the war and the international level of the conflict are already undeniable.
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More articles by Hunduz Read Mamedov at the link.
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