An ambulance straight from Ukraine parked near the Palace of Europe in Strasbourg, where the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe gathered.

In September 2022, the Russians shelled the medical vehicle evacuating people in the Kharkiv oblast. In January 2023, it reminds the MEPs daily about Ukraine's situation.

The parliamentarians were busy with the "tribunal against Putin": a special criminal court to punish the highest officials responsible for Russian aggression against Ukraine.

The Council has outlined the details of this tribunal for the first time, which is to be established in The Hague.

The Council of Europe takes the lead

The Council of Europe is a pan-European organisation founded in 1949 with the primary aim of creating a common democratic and legal area by ensuring respect for the shared values of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. However, over time, the post-war roots had been forgotten. For ten years, the organisation insisted that it should not deal with military conflicts and tried to appease Russia despite its aggression against Ukraine in 2014.

Only the 2022 full-scale invasion made Council of Europe members realise that this approach wasn't working. Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe in March 2022. Like the rest of the Western world, the organization began looking for ways to back Ukraine. Little could it do without the howitzers, tanks, or other weapons that Kyiv most wanted.

The Council of Europe found its role later.

It assumed its leadership role in the future post-war justice against the aggressor.

The idea of creating a special tribunal for punishment for the crime of aggression was first voiced last spring. Then PACE became the first international body to support this idea publicly. The European Parliament,

the European Commission, the OSCE PA, the NATO PA, and several European parliaments and governments joined the list later.

But Strasbourg held the lead and got even further.

The Assembly, in its three resolutions, returned to the creation of a special tribunal last week, mentioning it every time Russian aggression was discussed.

One of the decisions was completely about punishing Russia for the crime of waging an aggressive war. This decision became the first document adopted at the level of an international organisation outlining the mechanisms of the future tribunal.

How should the tribunal work?

First, according to the document,

it should be a "single crime trial." Its jurisdiction will be limited to punishment for the crime of aggression committed against Ukraine.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) should investigate all other crimes committed by Russians. However, it is not authorised to investigate the actual crime of Russian aggression. Although the crime of aggression is the reason because without it, there would be no war and related crimes, and tens and hundreds of thousands of people would not have died. Therefore, the document suggests that Russian crimes be investigated simultaneously in two international criminal courts. The tribunal "would be complementary to the ICC's jurisdiction and in no way limit or affect the latter's exercise of jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and possible genocide committed in the context of the ongoing aggression," the decision reads.

Second, the document investigates and punishes "aggression launched by the Russian Federation in February 2014," not just the full-scale war in 2022-23.

The Assembly did not immediately agree to this. But the decision of the first international court that Russia has fully controlled Donbas's so-called "republics" since 2014 convinced the MEPs. Even earlier, the court in Strasbourg confirmed that Russia had occupied Crimea before its illegal annexation.

Thirdly, representatives of the Russian leadership will not have immunity from persecution.

"The position of head of state or government, member of government or parliament, elected representative or civil servant should in no case exempt an accused person from criminal responsibility for the crime of aggression or justify the mitigation of punishment for such a person," the approved unanimously decision of the Parliamentary Assembly states.

The list does not include only Russian politicians. The decision underlines that the list must also include representatives of the Russian military elite. It would be logical to see accusations against Russian propagandists who systematically added oil to the fire by spreading fakes and hate speech toward Ukraine.

Fourthly, the representatives of Belarus who backed the Russian invasion of 2022 should also be on the bench of the accused.
"Jurisdiction (of the tribunal) would include the role and complicity of the leaders of Belarus in the war of aggression against Ukraine," the Council points out.

And fifthly, the PACE emphasised the tribunal location for the first time.

"Its seat should be established in The Hague to ensure complementarity and co-operation with the ICC and other international courts and institutions," reads the PACE resolution.

"New Nuremberg" for Putin's elite

The PACE decision is not yet an approved position of the world community. There is a high chance that a special tribunal will be created in full compliance with this description. The Assembly consulted with the Committee of Ministers, representing all the Council of Europe member states, PACE President Tiny Kox told "European Pravda."

The Council of Europe wants to be a "promoter" of the tribunal creation. The next stage will be the Council of Europe summit scheduled for May 16-17 in Reykjavík. A political agreement on this has already been reached. In particular, PACE adopted guidelines for the summit last week, which require reaching a public political agreement on the tribunal.

The PACE points out: the Hague tribunal for Putin and Lukashenka should become a "remake" of the Nuremberg tribunal. It took place after WWII to convict the leadership of Nazi Germany.

"Creation of a special tribunal for the punishment of the crime of aggression against Ukraine, by an ad hoc "coalition of the willing" and inspired by the Nuremberg precedent. According to this proposal, States would agree to grant jurisdiction arising under national criminal codes and general international law to such a dedicated tribunal," reads the Report on Legal and human rights aspects of the Russian Federation's aggression, approved by the Assembly.

Although the details of this mechanism are yet to be agreed upon, it is obvious that the creation of a special tribunal is becoming more and more real.

The world made one step closer to that last week.

Sergiy Sydorenko

Editor, "European Pravda"

from Strasbourg