Thread by @sevslv

The @CIJ_ICJ public hearings concerning the request for the indication of provisional measures in the Allegations of #Genocide Case (#Ukraine v #Russia) are about to begin.

#UkraineRussianWar #UkraineRussiaConflict #UkraineUnderAttaсk #aggression

Follow: icj-cij.org/en/multimedia-…

President J Donoghue opens the hearing and states her regret that #Russia has failed to appear at the hearing. The hearing was scheduled on short notice but it is quite remarkable, if unsurprising, that the respondent is absent.
Some ICJ judges are participating via video link.

President Donoghue introduces Prof. Yves Daudet, an ad hoc Judge chosen by #Ukraine; states his credentials, and invites him to make a solemn declaration. Ad Hoc Judge Daudet is duly installed.

ICJ President summarises #Ukraine's application bringing the case to the ICJ and its request for the indication of provisional measures. The Registrar reads out the specific measures #Ukraine has requested the ICJ to order. ICJ President welcomes the delegation of Ukraine.

ICJ President reminds the members of the #Ukraine delegation that they should not speak to the merits of the case in the context of this hearing.

Agent for Ukraine, Anton #Korynevych (who is also the President's Envoy to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea), takes the floor.

#Korynevych: It speaks for itself that #Russia's seats at the ICJ are empty; it is now on the battlefield waging war rather than in the court of law. Russia's claim of genocide is a lie. It is Russia who is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

#Korynevych: By falsely claiming genocide, Russia defiles the Genocide Convention. It is abusing it in order to justify its aggression against #Ukraine. The Court can play an important role by indicating provisional measures to stop Russia's illegal conduct.

Prof. Jean-Marc #Thouvenin, Agent for #Ukraine on prima facie jurisdiction: international law is not an empty promise. Russia attacks the very identity and existence of #Ukraine under the disguise of #genocide prevention. 24/02/2022 is the black day for the Genocide Convention.

#Thouvenin: ICJ should make the Convention whole again by adopting the requested provisional measures. There's extreme urgency to prevent further devastation and loss of life. The ground to assert prima facie jurisdiction is the compromissory clause of Art IX #Genocide Convention

#Thouvenin: it's a well-delineated dispute re: interpretation, application, and fulfilment of #Genocide Convention. The accusation of the #Donbas genocide is #Russia's only justification for its attack on #Ukraine which was repeated consistently & vehemently for the last 8 years.

#Thouvenin presents Russia's official allegations on the purported #genocide in the #Donbas, including the information about #Russia's Investigative Committees's communications on the bases to prosecute top political & military leaders of #Ukraine for genocide against RU speakers

#Thouvenin: this isn't a trivial event. Accusations of a violation of the #Genocide Convention repeated by the top leaders of #Russia and relayed by state media were repeated year after year. The #Russia President said to RT: "what's going on in #Donbas is #genocide, we know it"

#Thouvenin: 18 Feb 2022 President of the Russian Parliament: "if it's not genocide, what is it? These people should be punished."

Several days later, President #Putin reiterated his earlier claims as the basis for recognizing LNR/DNR and starting the operation; direct quotes.

#Thouvenin: #Ukraine vehemently disagrees with these claims, which were rehearsed by Nebenzia in the UN & forcefully rejected by Minister Kuleba on 23 Feb 2022. Ukraine denies #Russia claims of #genocide as baseless & absurd. This confirms the existence prima facie of a dispute.

#Thouvenin: The 2nd aspect of the prima facie jurisdiction issue is the implication of the duty to prevent and punish the crime of genocide (Art. 1). The #Genocide Convention does not authorize any state to ensure respect for the Convention through the unlawful use of force.

#Thouvenin: #Putin implies that #Genocide Convention allows #Russia to 'denazify' and 'demilitarize' #Ukraine and thus prevent the purported genocide in the #Donbas. Art IX does not authorize Russia to take military action; it should have rather brought a case before @CIJ_ICJ.

#Thouvenin: the ICJ's prima facie jurisdiction in the present case is beyond any doubt. #Ukraine is requesting the Court to indicate provisional measures.

Agent for #Ukraine (alas I missed his name) takes the floor to present the factual background going back to the 2014 events.

Agent #Ukraine recounts the facts relating to #Russia's hybrid war against #Ukraine waged in the #Donbas in the lead up to its February 2022 invasion and the context for the ICJ case. The Agent denies that the civilian casualties, which Ukraine regards as tragic, were deliberate.

Human rights monitors have been examining closely the situation in the #Donbas for the past years and the #ICC conducted a preliminary examination. None established any evidence of the #genocide being committed in #Ukraine. But the world observed how Russia amassed its troops.

#Russia's false flag operations were exposed. Russia settled on its lies; it recognized LPR/DNR as independent states based on the purported genocide they faced. It carried out overt aggression against #Ukraine which horrified the world. RU speakers are under attack - by Russia.

Agent UA: Russia has the gall to massacre the Ukrainian people, to call for the overthrow of its legitimate and democratically elected government, and to be claiming it does so in order to 'denazify' #Ukraine.

Agent UA (Marney Cheek) explains the content of the obligations under the #Genocide Convention to prevent and punish genocide and shows how Russia has manipulated its language to give itself a pretext for attacking #Ukraine. Russia has flouted the ideas underlying the Convention.

#Cheek (UA): #Russia has invoked the rights & duties under the #Genocide Convention not in a bona fide but as a shield to cover up its aggression. The object and purpose of the Convention are being defeated. There's no plausible genocide or the risk thereof in the #Donbas region.

#Cheek: Civilian deaths in the #Donbas conflict do not per se amount to a #genocide as defined in Art. II of the Convention. No credible evidence #Ukraine has committed genocidal acts. The elements of genocide - actus reus & mens rea ( specific intent to destroy) are not there.

The ICJ is back in session. No sign of the Russian delegation yet.

#Cheek: lacking evidence of genocide, #Russia has no duty to prevent and punish #genocide-rather, it has the duty *not* to act. "The use of force cannot be the appropriate method to ensure such respect" (Nicaragua). Ukraine has the right to bona fide performance of the Convention

#Cheek: #Russia used baseless accusations of genocide to carry out a special military operation, turning the Convention on its head. This is no good faith performance of Arts I and IV. Russia turned the #Genocide Convention into a charade.

PCIJ case on Certain German Interests:

#Cheek: despite being an important humanitarian treaty the #Genocide Convention could become a tool of manipulation used to cloak military intervention into an effort to prevent & punish genocide. It must be applied in good faith so that its object & purpose is not frustrated.

#Cheek: Ukraine has the right not to suffer aggression, war crimes & crimes against humanity as a result of the operation that pretends to prevent & punish the non-existent genocide. #Russia must have exercised due diligence in establishing the grounds for invoking the Convention

#Russia failed to conduct such a due diligence check and instead made repeatedly baseless allegations invoking directly the #Genocide Convention. Thus it acts on a fundamentally flawed basis, brandishing the right and duty to protect the #Donbas population against the '#Nazis'.

#Cheek: #Russia is shelling #Ukraine cities; bombs are raining down on Chernihiv, Kyiv, and Mariupol - while there is no justification for such actions. It is paradoxical that the #Ukraine is being punished for #genocide while there's absolutely no evidence of such. Russia lies.

#Cheek: #Russia offends the humanitarian principles underlying the #Genocide Convention. Rather than preventing and punishing #genocide in good faith, it wages war against #Ukraine based on deliberately baseless claims.
Jonathan #Giblin (UA) addresses the risk of irreparable harm

#Giblin: the facts point unambiguously to the existence of the irreparable prejudice and hence the urgency of the requested provisional measures. The military operation triggered humanitarian and environmental consequences unseen in Europe since 1940s.

#Giblin: This is not just a surgical military operation as the label implies but a wholesale invasion into #Ukraine which has had devastating humanitarian and environmental consequences. Giblin refers to @IntlCrimCourt Prosecutor @KarimKhanQC's decision to move to investigation:

#Giblin provides examples of facts that may amount to war crimes since the first days of the conflict. Much worse has happened since those incidents and is yet to come. Russia has resorted to evil tactics of besieging cities - cutting off water and electricity. E.g., #Mariupol:

This is #Borodyanka. This carnage continues, as Russia uses barbaric and indiscriminate weapons: unguided missiles and cluster munitions. There is a risk of deploying thermobaric bombs which suck out the oxygen. The humanitarian consequences are disastrous (Bachelet & Grandi)

Over 1.5 mln refugees have fled #Ukraine driven out by the advance of #Russia's armed forces. The civilians who stay are trying to find shelter and losing their lives during evacuations. Image: #Irpen

#Giblin: the Russian Armed forces launched an attack on the site of #Chernobyl - fortunately, the worst could be avoided as the new containment structure was not seriously damaged. They have also shelled the NPP at #Zaporizhnia. The ecological disaster would have been fatal.

#Giblin: The natural oil depot in Vasylkiv has also been shelled (image). These incidents show the #Russia military's utter disregard for the environmental consequences of their operations.

The prejudice for #Ukraine will be irreparable, incl. the loss of lives on both sides.

#Giblin: for mlns of people fleeing #Ukraine️, no certainty whether/when they'd be able to go back & whether their homes would still be standing, whether they'd see relatives again - enormous psychological trauma. The scorched-earth tactics compounds the ecological situation.

##Giblin: the civilian population is extremely vulnerable. Mlns are internally displaced & more than a million are refugees. The situation is fragile. We saw in #Syria: once Russia surrounds cities, it simply bombs them into oblivison. This fragility extends far beyond #Ukraine.

#Giblin doesn't mince his words and calls the #Russia leadership increasingly out-of-touch. His presentation does a great job of demonstrating the high risk of irreparable harm and the urgency of ordering the preliminary measures requested by #Ukraine.

Harold Hongju Koh (Agent #Ukraine) takes the floor and scolds the international community's inaction enabling #Putin's flagrant violations of international law, in particular financing of terrorism in Ukraine and beyond.

Hongju Koh: this should be seen as a singular case: a P5 member decides to invade another state on the false allegation of #genocide being committed by it. The Court should act immediately to prevent aggravation.

NB: Mr. Agent, to state it's a singular case is amnesiac. #Iraq

Hongju Koh to the #ICJ: other international institutions will act in concert with you if the order for provisional measures is issued and, inspired by it, will pursue other avenues for accountability in this deepening conflict. Hongju Koh lists the factual basis for the measures:

Hongju Koh: @IntlCrimCourt and @NewsEchr are exploring other accountability options. But given this Court's special status, the entire world is looking to you (ICJ) for guidance and leadership.

NB: there's no hierarchy among int. courts; each has its mandate. Unhelpful rhetoric.

Hongju Koh elaborates on the specific provisional measures (and their interplay inter se) #Ukraine is requesting @CIJ_ICJ to indicate in this case in order to safeguard its rights against any irreparable prejudice that may result from #Russia's continued use of force in Ukraine.

The 1st two PMs target the abuse by Russia of the rights and obligations under the #Genocide Convention.
Hongju Koh relies upon the ICJ's past case law. PM 3 on non-aggravation/extension of the dispute: the Court should order Russia to refrain from further military operations.

Hongju Koh: PM 4 is to ensure the integrity of these proceedings so that the @CIJ_ICJ can decide the case on the merits and render justice. In time #Ukraine will seek full reparations on account of violations by #Russia of the #Genocide Convention.

Hongju Koh: This case has become much bigger than just a #Russia/#Ukraine dispute. What is to prevail: Russia or the post-WW international legal order? The UN system should work as intended. If the #Genocide Convention is not upheld and if the Court cannot order Russia to stop,

then this is not going to be the last such case. What would then prevent any other P5 to conduct a similar invasion? This would be the end of the project of international law. This cannot be the outcome here. The ICJ has the undeniable authority to act; we ask you immediately to

issue the order indicating provisional measures.

Agent #Zolotaryova (UA): Russia has underestimated #Ukraine's defenders' devotion and determination to deflect the attack. But we need more help from our allies and the world, including this Court. Russia fabricated genocide

claims out of nothing; it twisted the crime of genocide to commit the crime of aggression, war crimes & crimes against humanity. #Ukraine came to seek your urgent protection. There's no doubt that RU allegations of genocide are absurd; there's an extreme urgency in ordering PMs.

Cities, including #Zolotaryova's native #Kharkiv, are bombed, churches, schools, universities are ruined; civilian infrastructure is ruined. Goes over the requested PMs again. On behalf of the Ukrainian people, thanks the ICJ for attention & requests PMs: "We are in your hands."

President Donoghue thanks #Ukraine agents and counsel and concludes the hearing.

Day 1 of oral hearings on the request for preliminary measures is over. The Court would normally adjourn until 10 am tomorrow but #Russia has been conspicuous by its absence. // The END, I assume.