For Ukraine, for their Freedom and Ours ! - CSO
Russia's Genocide in Ukraine
Our campaigns and actions
What distinguishes genocide from other international crimes is the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, [a protected group], as such.” This intent can be attributed to a State through evidence of a general plan (derived from official statements, documents, or policy) or can be inferred from a systematic pattern of atrocities targeting the protected group. The five
genocidal acts—killing, causing serious harm, deliberately inflicting physically destructive conditions of life, imposing birth prevention measures, and forcibly transferring children to another group—can also point to genocidal intent when viewed in their totality.
Hook et al., 2023, The Russian Federation’s Escalating Commission of Genocide in Ukraine: A Legal Analysis
REPATRIATING UKRAINE'S STOLEN CHILDREN
Our campaign on behalf of deported children stolen from Ukraine was, and remains, a pioneering one in France.
We carried out :
- sustained advocacy in the mainstream media
- an international petition with over 280,000 signatures
- two communication to the ICC
- sustained dialogue with French and European political figures on resolutions condemning the deportations
These rapes, which began in 2014, number in the thousands, mainly affecting women, but also children and men, civilians and soldiers still being held in Russian prisons. These crimes against humanity have so far received the least coverage in Russia's war against Ukraine.
In collaboration with the Ukrainian association SEMA, the ADDP and the Centre for Civil Liberties, our press conference helped to alert to the rape of Ukrainian men and women as a genocidal component.
SECURING ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURES
Russia has further intensified its bombings against civilians and in particular electrical installations, taking advantage of a growing shortage of Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses. As we stated in a recent column in Le Monde , we can and must spare Ukraine this programmed nightmare, and all of Europe a potential nuclear catastrophe.
The ten measures we are proposing are relatively inexpensive, if we compare them to the budget needed to rebuild the facilities targeted by the Russians, or even to the ruin that would result from the radioactive contamination of the European continent with all its consequences for the population.
The Russian genocide of the Ukrainian people
The aim of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine is the systematic and consistent massacre and extermination of the Ukrainian people, their identity and the deprivation of their right to self-determination and independent development. The world must recognise the genocide of the Ukrainian people during the Russian invasion in 2022.
“Daily mass murders, abductions, imprisonment, torture, rape of women and children, disfiguring corpses after death, executions, blockades of localities, destruction of civilian infrastructure, the use of man-made hunger as a method of warfare.... And there are many such atrocities all over Ukraine where the Russian invader has set foot”, stressed the President of the Ukrainian Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, insisting that we cannot remain silent.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine calls on the whole world to recognize Russia's actions as genocide of the Ukrainian people.
Legal studies point to genocide
An Independent Legal Analysis of the Russian Federation's violations of the Genocide Convention in Ukraine and the duty to prevent
by the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy et le Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, mai 2022
"Our initial report in May 2022 found reasonable grounds to believe that Russia had engaged in direct and public incitement to commit genocide. This was done through the use of language including “de-nazification,” “de-Satanization,” and the construction of Ukrainians as an existential threat in attempts to warrant their destruction as a recognized, national group. Combined with corresponding actions inescapably attributable to the Russian Federation, there was already a “serious risk of genocide” – the threshold established by the International Court of Justice for the duty to prevent stipulated in Article I of the Genocide Convention. Accordingly, States party to the Genocide Convention should then have been acting preventively – if genocide was not already being committed. Indeed, under customary international law, the international community as a whole should have been acting."
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim OBE, Senior Director of the Mass Atrocities and International Law Portfolio
The Russian Federation's Escalating Commission of Genocide in Ukraine: A Legal Analysis
by the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy et le Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, July 2023
"This report – an updated independent inquiry into the Russian Federation’s involvement in Ukraine – extends beyond incitement to the question of actual commission of genocide, separate crimes under Art. III (c) of the Genocide Convention. The evidence presented compels us to conclude that the Russian Federation has not only continued but escalated its efforts to commit genocide. Beyond a serious risk of genocide, we conclude there are violations of the Genocide Convention beyond a reasonable doubt."
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim OBE, Senior Director of the Mass Atrocities and International Law Portfolio
