According to Stephen Rap, Russia’s veto power at the UN will not help the Russian president avoid responsibility for war crimes against Ukraine.
A successful vote by the UN General Assembly is required to establish a tribunal over Russian President Vladimir Putin. This was announced on Sunday, March 5, by the judge of the People’s Court in The Hague, Stephen Rap, on the air of the national telethon.
According to the judge, such a decision would require at least 90 votes. Therefore, we are talking not only about the EU countries – you need to enlist the support of other states outside the European Union. At the same time, the right of veto in the UN will not help Russia.
“Russia will certainly veto the creation of such a court by the UN Security Council, but they do not have a veto in the General Assembly. They were one of the seven countries that voted against the latest resolution in the UN General Assembly. And it is clear that they will vote against this one as well. But they can’t stop it, because it can be approved outside the UN Security Council.This is a successful formula, but the key to this formula is to get the support of not only European countries, you need to have a representative number of votes outside the EU.At least – 90. Because it is obvious that there will be many who will abstain,” said Stephen Rap.
The judge noted that Ukraine cannot independently judge the president and prime minister of Russia. But in relation to the military leadership, Ukrainian courts can make decisions.
“Ukraine cannot judge Putin. Gerasimov – yes, even Shoigu, but not the head of state or the prime minister, so an international court is needed. We were able to create such a court in the case of Sierra Leone. All that is needed is a vote in the UN General Assembly,” Rap added.
Recall, on March 2, Focus wrote that a petition appeared on the Change.org website demanding that Russia be excluded from the UN. At the time of publication of the material, the petition has collected more than 300 thousand votes.
Earlier, on March 1, the Prosecutor General of Latvia, Juris Stukans, believes that a special tribunal to investigate the crimes of the Russian Federation can be created in one day.
On February 28, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that during the opening of the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council dedicated to the genocide in Ukraine, he called on the world community to join the international coalition to create a special tribunal for the political and military leadership of Russia.
