House committee leaders introduce bill to encourage international tribunal in support of Ukraine

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine still raging on, a collection of House chairs, co-chairs and ranking members introduced non-binding legislation last week meant to encourage President Joe Biden to support the creation of an international tribunal to punish crimes undertaken against Ukraine.

“It is up to the international community to pursue all legal avenues to hold the Russian officials waging a barbaric war against Ukraine accountable,” the federal lawmakers said. “Vladimir Putin and his warlords are not only an enemy of Ukraine but a threat to the international order, a threat that requires a legitimate international body to hold them to account. Not since the Second World War has the international community held such a war tribunal, but unfortunately, the acts of aggression that have been committed in Ukraine require that we do so again. We have faith that the Ukrainian people will prevail and that when this war ends, international legal institutions will rise to the occasion, holding aggressors responsible for their actions.”

The crime of aggression is specifically protected against in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, but even so, it is unlikely charges could be pushed against Russia. Russia is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, and as such, has expansive veto powers. In September, it used those very powers to veto a resolution condemning its globally denounced annexation of Ukrainian regions. Further, no nation has been prosecuted for the crime of aggression since 1949.

Still, the lawmakers seek to try. Their resolution would provide the Biden administration a mandate to lead efforts at creating a Special Tribunal to punish the crime of aggression in Ukraine.

The effort is being led by U.S. Reps. Mike Quigley, co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus; Bill Keating (D-MA), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Energy, the Environment and Cyber; Joe Wilson (R-SC), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa and Global Counterterrorism; Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Co-Chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus; and Jim McGovern (D-MA), chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. Another 11 representatives joined them as co-sponsors.