Pursuing Accountability for International Crimes in Ukraine
Air raid sirens in the middle of the night, unreliable electricity, and no holidays. Yet legal professionals in Ukraine not only continue to do their drastically transformed jobs – investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate conflict-related cases – but on top of that attend trainings on international criminal law. What is the current status of Ukraine’s domestic efforts to pursue accountability for international crimes in Ukraine, how to ensure the fairness of the trials, how to do capacity building in a country at war, and what is happening at the international level in the fight against impunity?
The Asser Institute in The Hague, part of the University of Amsterdam, has worked in and on Ukraine since 2020 to strengthen the skills and knowledge of legal professionals. What is the current status of Ukraine’s domestic efforts to pursue accountability for international crimes in Ukraine? What are investigators and prosecutors struggling with the most? How many cases have ended up in Ukrainian courts and how do judges, who are also victims of the Russian aggression, ensure that the trials remain fair and in compliance with international law?
Besides exploring these issues, our panel inquires into the international efforts in the fight against impunity for international crimes in Ukraine. What is the status of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression, the investigations at the International Criminal Court and the proceedings at the International Court of Justice? And what can be expected from courts in other countries exercising universal jurisdiction? This discussion will address these and other questions, taking both an academic and practitioner perspective, and including Ukrainian voices. After the expert interventions, there will be plenty of room for Q&A with the audience.
Speakers
Andrii Kostin was appointed Ukrainian Ambassador to the Netherlands on 7 April 2025. In 2019, he was elected a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament, where he was, among other things, Chair of the Committee on Legal Policy. From 2022 to 2024, he served as the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
Gabrielė Chlevickaitė is a Senior Researcher in International Criminal Law at the Asser Institute (on loan from the University of Amsterdam), where she coordinates the Restoring Dignity and Justice in Ukraine 2025-2027 Asser Sub-Project, and MATRA-Ukraine 2025-2029. She also conducts research into fact-finding in international criminal investigations and prosecutions.
Mykola Mazur is judge in the Grand Chamber of the Ukrainian Supreme Court. He previously worked as a judge in the Popasna District Court in the Luhansk region.
Marieke de Hoon is Professor of International Criminal Law at the University of Amsterdam and Director of the Amsterdam Center for Criminal Justice.
Christophe Paulussen (moderator) is a senior researcher in international criminal law at the Asser Institute, coordinator of the research strand ‘Accountability of the State and the Prosecution of Crimes’ and associate fellow at the Amsterdam Center for Criminal Justice and the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague.
