GW Law School Law & Policy Workshop 2023

More than a year after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022—itself a blatant act of aggression under international law1—Russian forces have been committing atrocities in the country on an alarming scale. Public outcry among liberal democratic and other states around the world and within the United States has led to strong support for the investigation and prosecution of atrocities committed in Ukraine. Indeed, President Biden, in a recent speech in Poland, declared that the United States would seek justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russians during the armed conflict in Ukraine, 2 and U.S. officials have expressed support for the ICC’s investigation.3 A broad coalition of countries, including the United States, has provided significant assistance to Ukraine to conduct domestic investigations and prosecutions of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other atrocities.4 In addition, immediately after the Russian invasion in 2022, 43 states parties to the Rome Statute referred the Situation to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open an investigation in Ukraine.5 Not only did the Prosecutor do so, announcing an investigation into war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide on the territory of Ukraine dating from 2013,6 but a Pre-Trial Chamber of the Court now has issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights.