The ICJ declares itself partly competent to judge a case on the invasion of Ukraine
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest court of the United Nations, said Friday it has jurisdiction to rule on most aspects of a case brought by Ukraine over Russia’s invasion in 2022, kyiv demanding reparations.
Ukraine brought the case against Russia before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which sits in The Hague, just days after the start of the invasion partly justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin with accusations of ” genocide” orchestrated by Kiev in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.
kyiv filed a petition with the ICJ, categorically denying the accusations and arguing that Russia’s use of “genocide” as a pretext for an invasion went against the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.
In a preliminary ruling issued in March 2022, the ICJ sided with Ukraine and called on Russia to immediately end its invasion. But Russia opposed this judgment, asserting that the ICJ, which decides disputes between States, had no legitimacy to judge the case.
The ICJ rejected Moscow’s argument on Friday, saying it had jurisdiction to rule on the issue. However, Ukraine also stated in its petition that the Russian invasion itself constituted a violation of the Genocide Convention. The ICJ said it did not have jurisdiction to rule on this part of the case.