THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Court of Justice has announced that 32 countries have been granted permission to support Ukraine in a genocide case against Russia, marking the largest number of countries to join another nation’s complaint in the court’s history.
Ukraine filed the case creatively just days after Russia’s invasion in February 2022. The complaint alleges that Russia violated the 1948 Genocide Convention by falsely accusing Ukraine of committing genocide in its eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions, using it as a pretext for the invasion.
Latvia was the first country to intervene in the case, and a total of 33 countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and all European Union member states except Hungary, requested participation on Ukraine’s side. However, the United States’ request was rejected due to a technicality.
According to the court’s judges, “the declarations of intervention filed in this case, except for the declaration submitted by the United States, are admissible.” Any country that has signed the post-World War II treaty criminalizing genocide is permitted to file for intervention in cases brought under the accord.
While countries and organizations not directly involved in legal proceedings often seek to submit arguments in a case, experts view the petitions in this case as expressions of solidarity with Ukraine and condemnation of Russia’s war, rather than opportunities to advocate specific legal positions.
In March 2022, the court had already ordered Russia to halt hostilities in Ukraine, but Moscow has failed to comply. The court is also hearing a separate case brought by Ukraine regarding Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Russian funding of separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
A similar group of countries has also requested intervention in a set of cases Ukraine filed against Russia over the war at the European Court of Human Rights. In March, the Strasbourg-based court granted 31 groups the right to support Ukraine in those proceedings.
