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Support for the reconstruction of Ukraine

Recommendation 2271 (2024)

Author(s):
Parliamentary Assembly
Origin
Assembly debate on 16 April 2024 (10th sitting) (see Doc. 15932, report of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, rapporteur: Mr Lulzim Basha; and Doc. 15941, opinion of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, rapporteur: Mr Davor Ivo Stier). Text adopted by the Assembly on 16 April 2024 (10th sitting).
1. The Parliamentary Assembly draws the Committee of Ministers’ attention to its Resolution 2539 (2024) “Support for the reconstruction of Ukraine”, which makes a resolute call for using confiscated Russian State assets to compensate for damage, injury and losses caused by the aggression of the Russian Federation and for supporting the reconstruction of Ukraine.
2. The Assembly refers to its Resolution 2516 (2023) “Ensuring a just peace in Ukraine and lasting security in Europe”, which called for establishing “a comprehensive compensation mechanism, including an international commission for the examination of claims for damages recorded in the Register of Damage, and a compensation fund to pay out on decisions on compensation for damage awarded by the commission, in particular by confiscating and otherwise using the Russian Federation’s assets to pay for damage caused by the war in Ukraine”. It also refers to its Resolution 2482 (2023) “Legal and human rights aspects of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine”, which called on Council of Europe member States to set up an international compensation mechanism, highlighted the reasons why the Council of Europe should have a leading role in setting up and managing it and detailed some of its key prospective features.
3. The Assembly recalls the decisions of the Committee of Ministers of 15 September 2022 and 24 February 2023 to welcome all efforts to secure full reparations for the damage caused by violations by the Russian Federation of international law in Ukraine. It also underscores that, in its Resolution CM/Res(2023)3 establishing the Enlarged Partial Agreement on the Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, adopted on 12 May 2023, the Committee of Ministers agreed “to continue working, in co-operation with Ukraine and relevant international organisations and bodies, towards the establishment by a separate international instrument of a future international compensation mechanism, which may include a claims commission and a compensation fund, of which the work of the Register, including its digital platform with all data about claims and evidence recorded therein is intended to constitute an integral part”.
4. In light of the above, the Assembly calls on the Committee of Ministers to:
4.1 proceed towards the establishment of an international compensation mechanism, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, to comprehensively address the damage incurred by natural and legal persons concerned, as well as the State of Ukraine, due to the unlawful actions of the Russian Federation in its invasion of Ukraine;
4.2 establish an international trust fund, where all seized Russian State assets will be deposited, ensuring transparency, accountability and equity in the disbursement of funds that should be used for compensation to Ukraine and natural and legal persons affected by the Russian aggression in Ukraine, as well as to aid Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction efforts;
4.3 endorse the establishment of an international commission of claims for the damage recorded in the Register, under the auspices of the Council of Europe;
4.4 consider including, in the scope of the future international compensation mechanism, once established, the damage caused by the Russian Federation’s internationally wrongful acts committed in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol and the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts before 24 February 2022, insofar as they were caused by the aggression against Ukraine that started in 2014, in particular in relation to breaches of international law confirmed by international adjudicative bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights.