Ukraine Ratifies Rome Statute, Paving Way For ICC Membership

KYIV, Aug 22 (Bernama-dpa) -- The Ukrainian parliament voted on Wednesday to ratify the Rome Statute by 281 votes to one, with 22 abstentions, making the country a party to the International Criminal Court (ICC) parliamentary deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak reported on Telegram, according to the German news agency (dpa).

The measure was passed with a temporary reservation relating to Ukraine's military.

While Ukraine signed the statute in January 2000, its parliament had not yet ratified it. The statute forms the basis for the court, which sits in The Hague and focuses largely on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ratification was passed with the reservation that Ukraine would not recognise the court's jurisdiction over Ukrainian citizens for war crimes for seven years following official adoption.

There are concerns that military personnel could face war crimes charges in certain cases in the struggle against the Russian invasion. The military conflict has been running since 2014, when Russian forces first entered the Donbas in the east, and not just since the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Kyiv made clear that ICC requests for cooperation could be made through diplomatic channels, directly to the Ukrainian state prosecutor or to the Justice Ministry – in Ukrainian.

The statute will go into effect in a few weeks. While 139 countries have signed it, only 124 have ratified it. Russia and the United States have both signed the Rome Statute but neither has ratified it. 

-- BERNAMA-dpa