Today, the Foreign Ministers of Albania, Colombia, Denmark, Marshall Islands, the Netherlands and Ukraine came together to launch a Group of Friends in New York, consisting of UN Member States committed to ensuring accountability following the aggression against Ukraine.
The Group rallies around the defense of an international rules-based order and the imperative to seek justice for crimes being committed in Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
Of the motivation behind the group, H.E. Mr. Casten Nemra, Minister of Foreign Affairs & Trade of the Republic of the Marshall Islands stated:
“The United Nations was expressly created to prevent the very abuses we are now seeing today, in real time. So however imperfect, it is up to us all as Member States to ensure the UN functions as mandated to address this grievous invasion… As a small nation, we depend closely on effective multilateral frameworks – because this is where we have a direct voice.”
And H.E. Ms. Marta Lucía Ramírez, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, elaborated:
“Human rights violations that give rise to crimes against humanity, war crimes or acts of genocide cannot go unpunished, nor can those responsible for them find peace on earth, because sooner or later they will have to appear before international justice. Colombia therefore believes that we must make a unanimous call for real solutions, and resort to all the mechanisms provided by international law to ensure that those responsible for these crimes face the consequences of their actions.”
The Group, which will work across New York and Geneva, offers a forum for UN Member States to engage with and promote synergies between the various measures that are being initiated at national, regional and international levels to ensure accountability in Ukraine. H.E. Mr. Jeppe Kofod, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark, stated:
“We don’t want to live in a world where might is right. When we insist on accountability for international crimes and gross violations of human rights, we insist not only on justice for the victims, but on defending the rules based international order. Today, we rally around the need for accountability for the appalling attacks on civilians in Ukraine.”
The newly formed Group will work to ensure that also small States, whose capacity to follow the development of accountability measures may not match the importance they attach to this matter, are included and engaged. It will also engage actively with civil society representatives involved in evidence collection in Ukraine.
The Group of Friends of Accountability following the aggression against Ukraine brings attention to the importance of accountability as a potential deterrent, preventing further human suffering, and as essential to long-term peace and stability in Ukraine.
H.E. Mr. Wopke Hoekstra, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, spoke to the importance of this work:
“We do not want to go down a slippery slope where valuable rules suddenly turn out to be worthless. Impunity destroys the foundations on which our rights rest. We cannot allow the crimes committed by Russia to go unpunished. We cannot allow the world to be set back. As true friends of justice, as true believers in justice, we must do everything in our power to seek and protect that what is so very dear to us.”
H.E. Ms. Olta Xhaçka, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania, highlighted that:
“Unlawful attacks by the Russian armed forces on civilian facilities, including schools, orphanages, and hospitals, such as the maternity hospital in Mariupol, and the mounting toll of civilian casualties, including women, older persons, persons with disabilities, and children cannot be tolerated. Russia must be investigated for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine and International Law must prevail.”
H.E. Mr. Sergiy Kyslytsya, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, stressed the importance of the Group’s establishment:
“I believe, that this Group of Friends will be able to complement the existing international proceedings on various war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russia in the course of its aggression against Ukraine by discovering and mapping new accountability processes and evidence collection initiatives. I am confident that with joint efforts we will be successful in holding the Russian Federation and its leadership accountable for all war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the aggression against Ukraine.”
