By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Ukraine’s 32 international allies on Wednesday filed a process at the International Court of Justice to support Kyiv’s case against Russia, in which it alleges Moscow twisted the genocide convention to manufacture a pretext for its invasion Feb. last year.
The 32 countries backing Kyiv are making brief legal arguments before a 16-man panel of justices at the International Court of Justice.
The court is holding hearings into Moscow’s claim that the World Court does not have jurisdiction and should throw out Ukraine’s case.
The hearing came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the United Nations General Assembly in New York told world leaders that Russia is “weaponizing” everything — from food and energy to abducted children in its war against Ukraine, warning world leaders that the same could happen to them.
Kyiv filed its case two days after Russia invaded Ukraine, arguing that the attack was based on false claims by Russia of acts of genocide in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine insists the court has jurisdiction, a position supported by Kyiv’s allies on Wednesday.
Legal representatives including Australian Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue told judges that the case is about a dispute between Ukraine and Russia over the 1948 Genocide Convention that should be settled by the court.
While most of the national presentations in the court’s ornate Great Hall of Justice were dry legal arguments, Canada’s representative, Alan Kessel, underscored what was at stake.
“Canada and the Netherlands recall the profound consequences of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in immense human suffering,” Kessel said. “It is against this backdrop that we intervene as part of our commitment to the protection and promotion of the rules-based international order and the peaceful settlement of disputes in which this court plays a vital role.”
The court’s panel of international judges will likely take weeks or months to reach a decision on whether the case can proceed.
If it proceeds, it could take years for a final ruling to be pronounced.
