On October 10, our Association’s expert Borys Babin took part in a training for volunteers, interviewers and human rights defenders involved in documenting war crimes, crimes against humanity and human rights violations, which was held in Kyiv by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.
The event, which was attended by more than 15 activists and volunteers, was dedicated to discussing the questionnaire and register of war crimes, crimes against humanity and human rights violations developed by the Center. Participants had the opportunity to discuss the practical application of this tool and see firsthand how to use it.
Lawyer Oleksandr Poznyak explained that the questionnaire and register have two key goals: helping an individual and forming an overall picture of crimes – in particular, by accumulating statistical data that allow identifying systemic violations.
Professor Babin pointed out the problems and prospects of investigating war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine and drew attention to the key difficulties in collecting evidence and its further use in courts, including international ones.
According to him, it is important to understand the real challenges that investigators and judges face: overload of cases and the frequent absence of legal positions of the Supreme Court. The expert noted that after the ratification of the Rome Statute, Ukraine faced certain challenges in measuring its provisions and norms of the Criminal Code, in particular in terms of the qualification of crimes.
“In order to prove that a specific fact is a war crime or a crime against humanity, it is necessary not only to establish the crime itself, but also to prove the specific context of the armed conflict. In practice, this is far from easy, because each proceeding requires a separate legal justification,” the expert explained.
The training participants received practical knowledge and recommendations on recording crimes, exchanged experience and discussed ways to strengthen cooperation in this area.
