The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ratified the Rome Statute on Wednesday, one of its deputies said, as reported by Reuters. Ukraine will thus become the 125th state party to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The ICC is the first permanent international court in history to try people accused of committing the most serious crimes, such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram that 281 out of 450 deputies voted in favor of ratifying the Rome Statute, which is a key condition for future accession Ukraine to the European Union.
The Rome Statute, which forms the basis for the International Criminal Court, has been signed by 137 states but ratified by only 124 so far.
International Criminal Court in The HagueShutterstock
International Criminal Court
The ICC tries crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Statute has not been ratified by, among others, USA and Russia.
In March last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants Vladimir Putin and the Russian children's rights advocate Maria Lvova-Belova. Both are suspected of committing a war crime of illegally deporting children from occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia. The Ukrainian side estimates that Russia has forcibly deported at least several thousand children from Ukraine, but – as the authorities in Kiev emphasize – this number may be significantly underestimated.
Ukrainian children's rights advocate Daria Herasymchuk warned that illegally deported children were being “Russified and trained to fight Ukrainians.”
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