The highest court of the UN declared on Friday February 2 that it had jurisdiction to rule on most aspects of a case brought by Ukraine concerning the Russian invasion launched in 2022, with kyiv demanding reparations.
Ukraine filed the case against Russia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which sits in The Hague, just days after the invasion began. Russian President Vladimir Putin partly justified the invasion with accusations of “genocide” orchestrated by kyiv in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine filed a petition with the ICJ, categorically denying the accusations and arguing that Russia's use of "genocide" as a pretext for an invasion contravened the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. .
ICJ says it does not have jurisdiction to judge whether Russian invasion amounts to genocide
In a preliminary ruling issued in March 2022, the ICJ sided with Ukraine and called on Russia to immediately end its invasion.
But Russia opposed the ruling, saying the ICJ, which decides disputes between states, had no legitimacy to judge the case. The ICJ rejected Moscow's argument on Friday, saying it had jurisdiction to rule on the issue.
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However, Ukraine also stated in its petition that the Russian invasion itself constituted a violation of the Genocide Convention. The ICJ said it did not have jurisdiction to rule on this part of the case.
The court also said it did not have the authority to rule on another point raised by Ukraine: that Moscow's recognition of the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk violated the convention.
With AFP
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