Raising awareness of the need for prevention,
Taking action as members of civil society
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
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