ICC prosecutor demands action against Ukraine war crimes

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, has called on the international community to be strongly committed to prosecuting war crimes in Ukraine.

“Law should not play a secondary role“, Khan said at the opening of an international conference on the prosecution of war crimes in Ukraine in The Hague on Thursday.

“The law cannot be a spectator,’’ Khan said.

Dutch Foreign Minister, Wopke Hoekstra, reiterated the need for a common strategy at the Ukraine Accountability Conference.

He said the action was necessary in view of the reports of rape, murder and torture in the raging war

EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders spoke of a gigantic task.

“It requires a strong Ukrainian judicial system,’’ Reynders said.

More than 30 ministers and prosecutors from Europe and other Western countries are meeting in The Hague to discuss joint strategies for prosecuting war crimes in Ukraine.

The conference was convened by the European Commission, the Dutch Foreign Ministry and the office of the prosecutor of the ICC.

Following the first reports of alleged war crimes after the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, the ICC launched investigations and sent the largest team of investigators ever to the war zone.

The judiciary in Ukraine said it was investigating more than 15,000 alleged cases.