The progress towards the establishment of the International Claims Commission is welcome. While the convention establishing this Commission does not absolve the Russian Federation of its responsibility for internationally wrongful acts committed in or against Ukraine on or after 20 February 2014, the Commission’s current jurisdiction is limited to damage, loss and injury caused on or after 24 February 2022.
As a result, millions of Ukrainian citizens, thousands of businesses, and a very large number of communities and public authorities who suffered damage as a consequence of the Russian Federation’s aggression between 2014 and 2022 risk remaining outside the compensation framework despite being victims of the same continuing act of aggression. Equal treatment of victims, the coherence of the international compensation mechanism, and the continuity of the Russian Federation’s aggression require that all victims suffering damage resulting from internationally wrongful acts committed since 20 February 2014 be entitled to consideration by the International Claims Commission.
For this purpose, the Parliamentary Assembly should call on the Committee of Ministers and States Parties to the Convention establishing an International Claims Commission for Ukraine to:
- support the expansion of the Commission’s temporal jurisdiction to include claims from damage, loss and injury caused by internationally wrongful acts by the Russian Federation in or against Ukraine on or after 20 February 2014;
- initiate the procedures necessary under Article 33 of the Convention to amend its temporal scope, upon the entry into force of the Convention and the operationalisation of the Commission;
- ensure that appropriate mechanisms are established to receive and determine claims relating to the period from 20 February 2014 to 23 February 2022.
Such an amendment would ensure equal access for all victims of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine and strengthen the legitimacy, coherence and credibility of the compensation mechanism.