During this week’s plenary session in Strasbourg, the European Parliament is debating a resolution calling on the European Union to work with international partners to establish a tribunal for crimes of aggression against Ukraine. The European Parliament’s debate and resolution follows Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s call for the creation of such a tribunal.
“Russia’s aggression and way of waging war against Ukraine is a clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and international law. As such, the leadership of the Russian Federation must one day face justice for crimes against aggression and crimes against peace, however long it takes. Justice must prevail, not least in order to bring at least some degree of satisfaction to the victims, even if, unfortunately, it will never bring back the extinguished lives and reverse the trauma caused. The European Parliament is already trying to support the creation of a temporary prosecutor’s office, which can collect the necessary evidence and prepare the relevant tribunal. In this context, I would like to recall the words of Judge Robert Jackson at the opening of the Nuremberg Trials in 1945: ‘We must never forget that what we judge these defendants on is what history will judge us by tomorrow,’ says the Slovak MEP Miriam Lexmann (KDH/EPP).
