On December 17, Ihor Kotelianets, Head of the Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin, took part in the roundtable discussion “The Right to Justice: Universal Jurisdiction as a Tool for Accountability for International Crimes,” initiated by the NGO “Voiatskyi Vyzvil.”

The purpose of the event was to discuss a working version of a Guide for Victims, which clearly explains the principle of universal jurisdiction and the possibilities for its use in holding Russian perpetrators accountable not only in Ukrainian courts but also worldwide.

The roundtable brought together Ukrainian citizens who survived Russian captivity, representatives of organizations working with victims and their families, human rights organizations, state authorities, the International Commission on Missing Persons, as well as journalists.

During his remarks, Ihor Kotelianets noted that even given the lengthy nature of universal jurisdiction proceedings, turning to this principle can serve as an additional tool for victims’ families in their search for justice. He also emphasized that the use of universal jurisdiction contributes to raising international awareness of the crimes being committed in Ukraine and performs an important memorialization function – preserving evidence and memory of the crimes of Russian aggression in order to prevent the horrors of war from being repeated in the future.

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