Review

The Government of Ukraine lodged two declarations under article 12(3) of the Rome Statute accepting theInternational Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed on its territory. On 25 April 2014, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court opened a preliminary examination of the situation in Ukraine. During the preliminary examination stage there are no circumstances which could avoid such cooperation. At once Ukrainian Code of Criminal Procedure containes some gaps which could block coopertion at the stage of investigation and prosecution.

In particular, national legislation allows cooperation between Ukraine and international criminal courts (tribunals) only if exist some international treaty which regulate such cooperation. But Ukraine and International Criminal Court didn’t made corresponding treaty. Parties can’t cooperate on the ground of the Rome Statute because Ukraine has only unilateral obligations with regard to the International Criminal Court.

Furthermore Ukraine and International Criminal Court can’t cooperate on the ground of the principle of comity inasmuch as this principle is relevant only in the case of horizontal cooperation between states and cooperation between state and International Criminal Court is vertical, by it’s very nature. Consequently cooperation between Ukraine and International Criminal Court needs the strengthening at national level. The Government of Ukraine prepard draft bill which contains all necessary amendments to the Ukrainian Code of Criminal Procedure. Firstly, the draft bill covers all aspects of cooperation between Ukraine and International Criminal Court: the surrender of persons to the Court, the identification and whereabouts of persons or the location of items, the taking of evidence, including testimony under oath, and the production of evidence, the questioning of any person being investigated or prosecuted etc. Secondly, the draft bill creates a universal mechanism of cooperation between Ukraine and international criminal courts (tribunals) without a treaty.

References

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5. ICRC, Commentary on the First Geneva Convention: Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field. Cambridge University Press, 2016. 1294 p.