ICJ allows countries to intervene alongside Ukraine in its proceedings against Russia

Filed four days after the Russian invasion began in February 2022, Kiev's complaint to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accuses Moscow of planning genocide, and of falsely using allegations of genocide in eastern Ukraine to justify its invasion of Ukraine. The ICJ has allowed dozens of Ukraine's Western allies to "intervene" alongside Kiev in its proceedings.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands (illustration image). © Peter Dejong / AP

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32 States are now allowed to intervene in the ongoing debates alongside Ukraine. This is a procedure provided for by the texts of this UN court, explains our correspondent in The Hague, Stéphanie Maupas. By using it, Ukraine's allies wanted above all to express their political support. Since June 2022, week after week, a new petition was filed. And week after week, the court's registry informed Moscow that a new state had allied itself with Kiev. A real war of nerves in the legal dispute between Kiev and Moscow.

The United States' request rejected

Russia opposed all the demands. The judges rejected his arguments, except for those against the U.S. request. As Moscow said, the judges ruled that Washington could not intervene in the debates because of its approach to the Genocide Convention. By ratifying it, the United States had opposed one of the articles giving the International Court the power to settle any dispute related to this Convention.

The 32 states will have to file their briefs by early July 2023. The proceedings in this case are expected to last several years.

Ukraine and Russia also presented their arguments to judges this week in a separate case brought by Ukraine before the ICJ in 2017, in which Kiev accuses Moscow of supporting separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine since 2014.

>> READ ALSO: Beginning of the Ukrainian counter-offensive that still does not say its name

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• Russia
• Ukraine
• International justice