Dossiers of evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine have been presented to German federal prosecutors at the start of a campaign to use the principle of universal jurisdiction to bring war criminals to justice.
The cases were filed on Thursday morning by the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), representing 16 survivors and the families of victims in three separate war crimes cases: an indiscriminate missile attack on a coastal resort near Odesa that killed 22 people; the execution of four men in occupied territory in the Kharkiv region in spring and summer last year; and a series of executions and acts of torture and sexual violence committed outside Kyiv in March 2022.
The first cases have been brought to Berlin because the German judicial system has been at the forefront of prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity under the principle of universal jurisdiction, by which some abuses are deemed to be so serious that the duty to investigate and prosecute goes far beyond the territory on which the crimes were committed.
Anya Neistat, the legal director of the Docket—a CJF initiative to collect evidence and build war crimes cases—said international support was high for prosecuting the widespread abuses committed in Ukraine, but added: “It is now the time to see words turn into real action—and we are counting on German prosecutors to lead the way.”
The evidence has also been shared with the prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court, which is investigating war crimes.
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