President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister of Netherlands Mark Rutte issued a joint statement following their meeting on May 4. In particular, it states that Special Tribunal for Russia should be held in Hague.
The parties welcomed the commitments of the 36 countries that have so far joined the Core Group for the establishment of a special tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
“We call on other states to join these efforts to ensure justice and end impunity. We firmly believe that The Hague, as a city of peace and justice, is the right place to host the special tribunal,” the politicians said.
They also welcomed the establishment of the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression (ICPA) at Eurojust in The Hague and thanked the members of the Joint Investigation Team, the European Commission and Eurojust for their work in this direction. They expressed the opinion that the ICPA is the first step towards justice for the crime of aggression committed by Russia.
Zelenskyy and Rutte also praised the efforts of the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes committed by Russian troops. In particular, the Netherlands promises to send two additional forensic missions to Ukraine in 2023 to work under the ICC flag. At the same time, the statement says, the main work on the investigation of international crimes should be done by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
