Draft convention establishing an international claims commission for Ukraine
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 1 October 2025 (33rd sitting) (see Doc 16270, report
of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, rapporteur:
Lord Richard Keen). Text adopted by the
Assembly on 1 October 2025 (33rd sitting).
1. The Parliamentary Assembly considers
that the Russian Federation must bear the legal consequences of
all of its internationally wrongful acts committed in and against
Ukraine, including its aggression in breach of the Charter of the
United Nations, as well as any violations of international humanitarian
law and international human rights law. These include violations
of the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5) committed
up to 16 September 2022. The Russian Federation must make full reparation
for all the damage, loss or injury caused by these breaches of international
law to the State of Ukraine and all natural and legal persons concerned.
This is in accordance with the principles of State responsibility
under international law and in line with United Nations General
Assembly Resolution ES-11/5 of 14 November 2022. The Assembly reiterates
that many of the internationally wrongful acts committed by the
Russian Federation violate erga omnes obligations
and peremptory norms of general international law, thereby affecting
the international community as a whole.
2. The Assembly has previously addressed the requirement for
a compensation mechanism for Ukraine in the context of the ongoing
war of aggression against the country. In its
Resolution 2482 (2023) “Legal and human
rights aspects of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine”,
the Assembly called on member States to set up an international
compensation mechanism for Ukraine, comprising a register of damage,
a claims commission and a compensation fund. It also considered
that the Council of Europe should play a leading role in setting
up and managing such a mechanism. Following the establishment of
the Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation
against Ukraine (“Register of Damage”) as an enlarged partial agreement
on 12 May 2023, which became operational in 2024, the Assembly reiterated
in numerous resolutions its call for the establishment of an international
claims commission and an international compensation fund as the
second and third components of the compensation mechanism. In
Resolution 2598 (2025) “Russian
war of aggression against Ukraine: the need to ensure accountability
and avoid impunity”, the Assembly considered that the best model
for establishing a claims commission would be an open Council of Europe
convention, which could ensure the necessary cross-regional support
while benefitting from the leadership and expertise of the Organisation.
In its related
Recommendation 2294
(2025), the Assembly called on the Committee of Ministers
to work without delay towards the establishment of a claims commission
for Ukraine, notably by setting up an ad hoc committee for the drafting
of an open Council of Europe convention.
3. The Assembly warmly welcomes the finalisation of the draft
convention establishing an international claims commission for Ukraine
(“draft convention”) by the Ad hoc Committee on the Establishment
of an International Claims Commission for Ukraine (CAHEC). This
work followed formal negotiations held outside the Council of Europe,
under the auspices of an intergovernmental negotiation committee,
which included over 50 States, the European Union and the Council
of Europe. The draft convention marks a further step in the Council
of Europe’s global response to hold the Russian Federation accountable
for its aggression against Ukraine. It creates an additional and
innovative legal tool (the International Claims Commission for Ukraine, hereafter
“the Commission”) to ensure that the Russian Federation bears the
legal and economic consequences of all the damage caused. The Commission
will complement the work of other international adjudicative bodies,
courts or tribunals dealing with the consequences of the aggression,
such as the European Court of Human Rights and the future Special
Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine. Justice and
accountability cannot be complete without reparations for the victims
of the aggression: the State of Ukraine and the individual victims
concerned. By establishing the Commission, the Council of Europe
is supporting Ukraine in its efforts to ensure justice, redress
and reconstruction, while also upholding the rule of law and the
international legal order that has been blatantly breached by the
Russian Federation. The Assembly commends the Council of Europe’s
ability to innovate and fill gaps in the international legal response to
the aggression, and reiterates that any future peace settlement
aimed at ending the aggression must include reparations and redress,
or at least not interfere with existing mechanisms.
4. The establishment of a claims commission within the Council
of Europe’s institutional framework is the natural next step following
the setting-up of the Register of Damage at the Reykjavik Summit
in May 2023. The Assembly reiterates its full support for the Register
of Damage, which has already received claims from more than 60 000
individuals across 13 categories of claims. The work of the Register
of Damage will be transferred to the Commission under the terms
of the draft convention, and claims will continue to be submitted
to the Commission. The fact that both the Register of Damage and
the Commission will be within the institutional framework of the
Council of Europe will facilitate an efficient transition without
any interruption to work.
5. The Assembly is satisfied that the draft convention is based
on a victim-centred approach, ensuring that individuals and legal
persons injured by the aggression are eligible to submit claims
to the compensation mechanism, in line with the existing rules concerning
the Register of Damage. Regarding the organisational structure of
the Commission, the Assembly notes that it follows well-known precedents
in international law. The Assembly considers that, overall, it ensures
the necessary independence and impartiality of the decision-making
bodies, while allowing, with certain safeguards, for the participation
of Ukraine and the Russian Federation should they become members
of the Commission. The Assembly further welcomes the fact that the draft
convention contains specific provisions on the independence of the
Commissioners, the Executive Director and the Secretariat, as well
as on procedural standards such as fairness, objectivity and transparency.
6. However, the Assembly regrets that the draft convention does
not provide clearer regulation of the funding of the compensation
awards, their enforcement and payment. The future existence of a
compensation fund is merely mentioned as a possibility in the preamble
and Article 22. Without the Russian Federation participating in
the Commission – a scenario which seems rather unrealistic in the
current context and in light of the conditions set out in Article 28
– the effectiveness of the compensation mechanism can be called
into question. Although compensation awards are a necessary step
towards justice and reparations, they must be enforced and paid
to individual claimants. While noting the incremental approach followed
by the States involved in the negotiations on the draft convention,
the Assembly urges them to work without delay towards the establishment
of an international compensation fund mandated to pay compensation
to successful claimants. In line with previous Assembly resolutions
(
Resolution 2539 (2024) “Support
for the reconstruction of Ukraine” and
Resolution 2556 (2024) “Legal and
human rights aspects of the Russian Federation’s aggression against
Ukraine”) and in accordance with international law, member States
and other States holding frozen Russian State assets should consider
repurposing such assets for transfer to the future compensation
fund.
7. The Assembly further regrets that the temporal scope of the
Commission is currently limited to the damage caused by violations
of international law committed on or after 24 February 2022. The
Assembly has consistently recognised that the Russian Federation’s
war of aggression against Ukraine started on 20 February 2014 and
escalated into a large-scale invasion on 24 February 2022. It therefore
considers that all victims of the Russian Federation’s aggression
since 2014 should be entitled to compensation. The Assembly calls
on the future parties to the convention to re-examine this issue
and consider an amendment in this regard, as foreseen in the preamble
and Article 33.2 of the draft convention.
8. The Assembly notes that Article 19 of the draft convention
addresses, in very general terms, the relationship with judgments
or awards by courts or tribunals and other international adjudicative
bodies. Given the overlap in the jurisdiction of both the future
Commission and the European Court of Human Rights for the period
between 24 February 2022 and 16 September 2022, the Assembly invites
the future Commission bodies to clarify this issue in their rules,
in consultation with the European Court of Human Rights.
9. The Assembly recognises that the convention should aim to
attract as many non-European States as possible, in order to strengthen
the Commission’s international legitimacy and representativeness.
However, as it is a Council of Europe convention, the Assembly believes
that the Statute of the Council of Europe (ETS No. 1) and relevant
Assembly resolutions should be referenced in the preamble to strengthen
its legal basis and acknowledge the Organisation’s leading role.
The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers
make the following amendments to the draft convention:
9.1 in the preamble, add a new fourth
paragraph that would read: “Having regard to the Statute of the Council
of Europe (ETS No. 1), which in its preamble underlines the pursuit
of peace based upon justice and international co-operation;”;
9.2 in the preamble, add a new paragraph before the current
11th paragraph that would read: “Noting that the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe, in its
Resolution 2482 (2023) “Legal and human
rights aspects of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine”,
called on the Council of Europe member States to set up an international
compensation mechanism, including a register of damage, a claims
commission and a compensation fund, and that it reiterated its call
to establish an international claims commission and an international
compensation fund in its
Resolution 2539 (2024) “Support
for the reconstruction of Ukraine”, its
Resolution 2556 (2024) “Legal and
human rights aspects of the Russian Federation’s aggression against
Ukraine” and its
Resolution 2605 (2025) “Legal
and human rights aspects of the Russian Federation’s aggression
against Ukraine”;”.
10. The Assembly is of the view that the draft convention establishing
an international claims commission for Ukraine can be adopted and
opened for signature as soon as possible.
