Nobel Prize Winner: Tribunal For Lukashenka Is Needed Now

It's time for the world to change the rules of the game.

Ukrainian human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviychuk talks about the tribunal for Lukashenka and Putin in a column for nv.ua:

— This year, the organization that I have been leading for more than 15 years was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This is acclaim for the efforts of the entire Ukrainian people fighting for freedom and democratic choice. It is also a unique opportunity for human rights activists to raise the issue of responsibility for Russia's war crimes at the international level. For sustainable peace in our part of the world is impossible without justice.

Russia uses war crimes as a way of waging war. Russian troops deliberately destroy residential buildings, churches, schools, hospitals, shoot down evacuation corridors, arrest people in filtration camps, carry out forced deportations of the population, kidnap, torture and kill in the occupied territories.

Russia wants to break the resistance and occupy Ukraine through the untold pain of the civilian population. We document this pain.

Over the years, I have spoken to hundreds of survivors of captivity. They told how the torturers beat them, raped them, electrocuted in their genitals, pulled their nails out, drilled their knees, forced them to write with their own blood. One woman told how they took out her eye with a spoon. There is no military justification for such actions. The Russians did it only because they could.

After a full-scale invasion, we joined forces with other human rights activists and initiated a Tribunal for Putin. We have built an all-Ukrainian network of documenters, which operates throughout the country, including the occupied territories. In just nine months, through our joint efforts, we have documented more than 26,000 episodes of war crimes.

This number of war crimes confirms that the international peace and security architecture is not working. We live in a world that has allowed Russia to occupy the Crimea and part of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions with impunity. And for a long time the pain of millions of people in Ukraine cannot be stopped. The UN failed to prevent a full-scale war and fulfill its mandate. And it is important to understand why and what should be changed. This is necessary not only for people in Ukraine. A world in which the rules of the game are determined not by law, but by a state with powerful military potential and imperial ambitions, is dangerous for everyone without exception.

First. The link between peace and human rights is inextricable. Human rights are as important as military capability or economic stability. A state that ignores human rights obligations is a threat not only to its citizens. Therefore, the international community must respond to systemic violations.

Second. Impunity increases the appetite of authoritarian regimes. For decades, the Russian military committed war crimes in Chechnya, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, Mali, Libya, Syria and went unpunished. The world did not even react to the annexation of the Crimea, which became the first precedent in post-war Europe. Russia believed that it could do whatever it wanted.

Third. A world in which stronger, rather than international, law sets the rules is dangerous for everyone. A cardinal reform of the international system of peace and security is needed to create effective guarantees for all countries and their citizens, regardless of participation in military blocs. Russia should be expelled from the Security Council for systematic violations of the UN Charter.

Fourth. The war has a value dimension. This is not a war of two countries, but a war of two systems — authoritarianism and democracy. Russia wants to prove that the rule of law, democracy and human rights are false values because they cannot protect anyone during a war. And in order to answer this, it is necessary to change approaches to justice for war crimes.

In the 20th century, the civilized world took a significant step towards the establishment of law and justice. The Nuremberg Trials convicted the war criminals of the fallen Nazi regime.

In the 21st century, we must go further. Justice should not depend on the strength of the Russian regime. We can't delay. It is necessary to create an international tribunal now, and bring Putin, Lukashenka, and other war criminals to justice.

War turns people into numbers. We must ensure justice for all the victims of the war and return names to the people. And to prove that justice exists, albeit delayed in time.