RF's official rhetoric has signs of incitement to genocide of Ukrainians – PACE resolution
Russia's official rhetoric employed to justify the full-scale invasion and aggression against Ukraine bears signs of public incitement to genocide and may indicate a genocidal intent to exterminate the Ukrainian national group as such, or at least in part.
This is stated in the resolution "Legal aspects and the human rights aspect of the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine", which was adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on January 26, reports Ukrinform.
"The Assembly notes that there is growing evidence that Russia's official rhetoric employed to justify the full-scale invasion and aggression against Ukraine, the process of so-called 'de-Ukrainization', bears signs of public incitement to genocide or reveals a genocidal intent to exterminate the Ukrainian national group as such or at least in part," the resolution reads.
PACE reminded that the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which both Ukraine and the Russian Federation are parties, prohibits direct and public incitement to genocide, as well as attempts to commit genocide.
PACE also “notes with extreme concern that some actions committed by Russian forces with regards to Ukrainian civilians may fall under Article II of the Convention, such as murder and forcible transfer of children from one group to another, with the aim of Russification through adoption by Russian families and/or transfers to Russian-run orphanages or boarding facilities such as summer camps”.
Furthermore, the resolution has three mentions of a "possible genocide" in Ukraine. Namely, the text refers to Russia's aggressive war on Ukraine and "the atrocities arising in its course (war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possible genocide)." It also contains a provision saying the creation of an international special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine should not affect "the latter's exercise of jurisdiction over the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possible genocide committed in the context of prolonged aggression." In addition, the resolution mentions the international and national mechanisms of investigating, prosecuting and, if necessary, punishing "war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possible genocide committed in the course of the ongoing war."
The PACE reminded that all member states of the Convention on Genocide are "obliged to punish genocide". "As interpreted by the International Court of Justice, they are also obliged to prevent genocide and have a corresponding duty to act, which arises at the moment when a state learns or should have learned about a serious threat of a genocide being committed," the document states.
On January 26, the PACE unanimously adopted a resolution on the legal and human rights aspects of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, which condemns Russia's violation of human rights in the full-scale war against Ukraine.
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