Ukraine must join the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and commit to ending impunity for perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, said the Coalition of the International Criminal Court (CICC), its member organisations in Ukraine and international members*, in a letter to H.E. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine.

• Download the letter (in pdf format)
• Download the CICC press release (in pdf format)

Background
Ukraine signed the ICC Rome Statute in 2000, but has yet to ratify it.
On 17 April 2014, the Government of Ukraine lodged a declaration under article 12(3) of the Rome Statute accepting the ICC’s jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed on its territory from 21 November 2013 to 22 February 2014. On 25 April 2014, the ICC Office of the Prosecutor announced the preliminary examination of the situation in Ukraine.
On 8 September 2015, the Government of Ukraine lodged a second declaration under article 12(3) of the Statute accepting the ICC’s jurisdiction in relation to alleged crimes committed on its territory from 20 February 2014 onwards, with no end date. On 29 September 2015, the Prosecutor announced the extension of the temporal scope of the existing preliminary examination to include alleged crimes committed after 20 February 2014.
On 2 June 2016, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted an amendment to article 124 of the Constitution of Ukraine which stated that the ICC jurisdiction may be recognised by Ukraine and introduced a transitional clause which delayed the entry into force of such amendment and thus possibility of ratification for 3 years.
On 30 June 2019, the amendment to Article 124 entered into force, therefore no legal obstacle to Ukraine’s ratification of the Rome Statute.
In August 2019, then Deputy Head of President Zelenskyy’s Office, and current Prosecutor General, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, announced that one of the President’s priorities would be to ratify the ICC Rome Statute signed by Ukraine 20 years ago.
Ukraine is also notably the only State not party to the ICC Rome Statute that has acceded to the Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Court (APIC) on 29 January 2007.

For further information, contact Alison Smith, Director Of International criminal Justice Program, on asmith@npwj.org or Nicola Giovannini, Press & Public Affairs Coordinator, on ngiovannini@npwj.org org.

* NPWJ is a founding member of the Steering Committee of the NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court