On September 22 and 23, our Association’s experts, Borys Babin and Anna Prykhodko, took an active part in the 9th Kharkiv International Legal Forum, in particular in its panel discussions “Resilience, Security and the Rule of Law: Environmental and Climate Dimensions of Post-War Reconstruction” and “Crimes against Humanity and Genocide: A Practical View of Certain Aspects of Russian Aggression in the Context of Ratification of the Rome Statute”, where they presented the current achievements of the ARC in exposing relevant international crimes in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
The discussions considered how the legal framework can ensure accountability for environmental destruction caused during the war, promote environmental restoration, and align Ukraine’s restoration with EU and international climate commitments.
Among other things, discussing the issue of the aggressor’s encroachments on the environment and based on the concepts presented by the participants of the discussion, Judge of the High Court of Ireland Richard Humphreys, and researcher of “Groupe URD” François Grünewald, Professor Babin proposed a discussion of the prospects of a sanction response to the actions of the aggressor, which significantly damaged the ecosystems of Ukraine.
The participants of the panel discussion were particularly interested in both the forms of international response to the December disaster of the “Volgoneft” tankers in the Black Sea off the Crimean coast, and the current investigations of our Association into the use of EU climate regulations by Russian tanker fleet companies as a form of evasion of sanctions.
