Post by JoyinMudville on Aug 4, 2023 16:25:02 GMT -5
From the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights
July 2023
newlinesinstitute.org/genocide/the-russian-federations-escalating-commission-of-genocide-in-ukraine-a-legal-analysis/
The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights is a unique international consortium of parliamentarians, scholars, jurists, human rights defenders, NGOs, and students united in the pursuit of justice, inspired by and anchored in Raoul Wallenberg’s humanitarian legacy – how one person with the compassion to care and the courage to act can confront evil, prevail, and transform history.
From mid-May to early July 1944, the Nazis deported 440,000 from Hungary to the Auschwitz Birkenau death camp – one of the most efficient, cruelest, and most horrific mass deportations in the Holocaust. Raoul Wallenberg arrived as a Swedish diplomat in the Swedish legation in Budapest in July 1944 and in six months saved 100,000 Jews.
July 2023
This report upholds and expands the previous findings that the Russia Federation2 bears State responsibility for breaches of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, namely, that there exist:
(1) Reasonable grounds to believe that Russia is responsible for direct and public incitement to commit genocide,
(2) Reasonable grounds to believe that Russia is responsible for the commission of genocide against the Ukrainian national group, a position supported by (i) a pattern of atrocities from which an inference of intent to destroy the Ukrainian national group in part can be drawn and (ii) documented evidence of one or more of the prohibited acts in violation of the Genocide Convention, and
(3) Signs of serious, escalating genocide and genocidal incitement in Ukraine:
a. The legal obligation of all States to prevent genocide was triggered by the spring of 2022.
b. Increasing signs of systematic, coordinated efforts by Russian State actors to incite and to commit genocide have appeared.
c. Russian State actors have further escalated their willful, systematic breaches of
the Genocide Convention.
Russian State actors have willfully caused serious bodily and mental harm to Ukrainians using multiple, systematic tactics that have escalated over time and in ways explicitly linked to targeting the Ukrainian identity. Consistent patterns of grievous physical and psychological harm inflicted by Russian forces and authorities against Ukrainian men, women, and children have been documented in geographically diverse areas of Ukraine and in Russia. These tactics have included extensive, industrialized torture, as well as rape and other forms of conflict-related sexual violence with extreme brutality, that have targeted Ukrainians across gender and vast age differences. Forms of torture that have been well documented within Russia for nearly twenty years are being systematically exported to Ukraine to target Ukrainians on the basis of their group identity.
d) Imposing Measures Intended to Prevent Births Within the Group. Numerous instances of sexual and gender-based violence committed by Russian forces and authorities in all areas of Russian control have been well documented. Similarities of testimonies regarding the overlap of sexual violence and the targeting of group identity have also been recorded. Rape- and conflict-related sexual violence has been flagged in other genocide assessments as fulfilling criteria of preventing births, affecting women’s and girls’ desires to marry, have children, or contemplate future relationships. Castration of male Ukrainians in Russian custody has been documented, and emerging reporting may indicate that this practice is widespread and systematic.
e) Forcibly Transferring Children of the Group to Another Group. Russian State actors have pursued policies and directives aimed at the systematic, coordinated, and large-scale transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-controlled territories. These actions have escalated significantly over the course of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with Ukrainian authorities verifying the identities of 19,393 Ukrainian children who have been taken. The scale of children forcibly deported requires extensive Russian State management and coordination, with evidence documented that Ukrainian children were pursued and taken against the will of their communities and guardians.
Available evidence indicates that the Russian State enacts procedures designed to strip Ukrainian children of their Ukrainian identity, citizenship, and sense of national group belonging. Russian authorities have also taken steps to conceal Ukrainian children’s identities and make it otherwise challenging for children to be returned home.
VI. Intent to Destroy the Ukrainian National Group in Part. The intent to destroy a group “in part” has been understood to require the targeting of a substantial or prominent part of the group. To assess this threshold, however, the scale of atrocities targeting Ukrainians must be viewed relative to Russia’s area of activity or control. Russian forces have left a trail of concentrated physical destruction upon retreat from occupied areas, including mass close-range executions, torture, destruction of vital infrastructure, and rape and sexual violence. The selective targeting of Ukrainian leaders or activists for enforced disappearance or murder is further evidence of Russia’s intent to destroy the Ukrainian national group in part, as those figures are emblematic of the group or essential to the group’s survival. Evidence of systematic, coordinated forcible deportations of large numbers of Ukrainian children to Russia with signs of eradicating their Ukrainian identity and obstructing their return home is one clear indication that Russia’s breaches of the Genocide Convention are escalating.
(1) Reasonable grounds to believe that Russia is responsible for direct and public incitement to commit genocide,
(2) Reasonable grounds to believe that Russia is responsible for the commission of genocide against the Ukrainian national group, a position supported by (i) a pattern of atrocities from which an inference of intent to destroy the Ukrainian national group in part can be drawn and (ii) documented evidence of one or more of the prohibited acts in violation of the Genocide Convention, and
(3) Signs of serious, escalating genocide and genocidal incitement in Ukraine:
a. The legal obligation of all States to prevent genocide was triggered by the spring of 2022.
b. Increasing signs of systematic, coordinated efforts by Russian State actors to incite and to commit genocide have appeared.
c. Russian State actors have further escalated their willful, systematic breaches of
the Genocide Convention.
Russian State actors have willfully caused serious bodily and mental harm to Ukrainians using multiple, systematic tactics that have escalated over time and in ways explicitly linked to targeting the Ukrainian identity. Consistent patterns of grievous physical and psychological harm inflicted by Russian forces and authorities against Ukrainian men, women, and children have been documented in geographically diverse areas of Ukraine and in Russia. These tactics have included extensive, industrialized torture, as well as rape and other forms of conflict-related sexual violence with extreme brutality, that have targeted Ukrainians across gender and vast age differences. Forms of torture that have been well documented within Russia for nearly twenty years are being systematically exported to Ukraine to target Ukrainians on the basis of their group identity.
d) Imposing Measures Intended to Prevent Births Within the Group. Numerous instances of sexual and gender-based violence committed by Russian forces and authorities in all areas of Russian control have been well documented. Similarities of testimonies regarding the overlap of sexual violence and the targeting of group identity have also been recorded. Rape- and conflict-related sexual violence has been flagged in other genocide assessments as fulfilling criteria of preventing births, affecting women’s and girls’ desires to marry, have children, or contemplate future relationships. Castration of male Ukrainians in Russian custody has been documented, and emerging reporting may indicate that this practice is widespread and systematic.
e) Forcibly Transferring Children of the Group to Another Group. Russian State actors have pursued policies and directives aimed at the systematic, coordinated, and large-scale transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-controlled territories. These actions have escalated significantly over the course of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with Ukrainian authorities verifying the identities of 19,393 Ukrainian children who have been taken. The scale of children forcibly deported requires extensive Russian State management and coordination, with evidence documented that Ukrainian children were pursued and taken against the will of their communities and guardians.
Available evidence indicates that the Russian State enacts procedures designed to strip Ukrainian children of their Ukrainian identity, citizenship, and sense of national group belonging. Russian authorities have also taken steps to conceal Ukrainian children’s identities and make it otherwise challenging for children to be returned home.
VI. Intent to Destroy the Ukrainian National Group in Part. The intent to destroy a group “in part” has been understood to require the targeting of a substantial or prominent part of the group. To assess this threshold, however, the scale of atrocities targeting Ukrainians must be viewed relative to Russia’s area of activity or control. Russian forces have left a trail of concentrated physical destruction upon retreat from occupied areas, including mass close-range executions, torture, destruction of vital infrastructure, and rape and sexual violence. The selective targeting of Ukrainian leaders or activists for enforced disappearance or murder is further evidence of Russia’s intent to destroy the Ukrainian national group in part, as those figures are emblematic of the group or essential to the group’s survival. Evidence of systematic, coordinated forcible deportations of large numbers of Ukrainian children to Russia with signs of eradicating their Ukrainian identity and obstructing their return home is one clear indication that Russia’s breaches of the Genocide Convention are escalating.
newlinesinstitute.org/genocide/the-russian-federations-escalating-commission-of-genocide-in-ukraine-a-legal-analysis/
The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights is a unique international consortium of parliamentarians, scholars, jurists, human rights defenders, NGOs, and students united in the pursuit of justice, inspired by and anchored in Raoul Wallenberg’s humanitarian legacy – how one person with the compassion to care and the courage to act can confront evil, prevail, and transform history.
From mid-May to early July 1944, the Nazis deported 440,000 from Hungary to the Auschwitz Birkenau death camp – one of the most efficient, cruelest, and most horrific mass deportations in the Holocaust. Raoul Wallenberg arrived as a Swedish diplomat in the Swedish legation in Budapest in July 1944 and in six months saved 100,000 Jews.