As of February 23, 2022, the world has become a more dangerous and unsafe place than it already was for millions of people. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine It transfigured millions of lives forever, followed an as yet indefinite number, forcibly expelled many others from their land and impacted, with varying degrees of damage, the entire planet due to its collateral effects on the price of energy and food. Twelve months after the first bomb was dropped on the Ukraine, the echoes of the explosion still resonate in our minds and hearts.
In all this time, global powers have engaged in belligerent efforts rather than negotiated solutions. Meanwhile, the cost is the blood of millions of direct and indirect victims of this conflict. Governments must commit to providing necessary long-term development and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, to ensure effective protection of economic and social rights, rebuild essential infrastructure, revitalize the economy and guarantee rights to a standard of living and health. appropriate.
But you must also put the needs of the victims at the center of all responses. Commit to meaningful Justice and adequate compensation through an effective investigation and fair trials of all those suspected of having committed the most abominable war crimes and other crimes under international law. The world must thus guarantee a long-term commitment to international Justice for Ukraine.
Since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, Amnesty International has rigorously documented and denounced war crimes and human rights violations committed in the European nation, speaking to hundreds of victims and survivors whose stories illustrate the brutal Reality of Russia’s war of aggression. Our priority in this and in any conflict is to ensure the protection of the civilian population.
Thus, we have focused on the danger behind the militarization of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, urging the UN to take action on the matter. Moscow’s actions around one of the largest plants in Europe are only understood as part of a broader strategy to threaten the civilian population and put millions of people in grave danger.
Our organization has also reported the numerous human rights violations committed by the Army of that country, such as indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population, the use of prohibited cluster munitions and dispersible mines, and extrajudicial executions. Obtaining evidence on this conduct is crucial to moving forward with present and future trials, respecting international standards that allow for the determination of responsibilities and achieving commensurate sentences.
An example are the mass graves in the forest of izium, in the Kharkov region, one of the areas hardest hit by Russian bombing. Ukrainian authorities found more than 440 hasty burials, mass graves and others identified only by wooden crosses, many without even names.
Also the incessant bombardment for months of residential neighborhoods in Kharkiv since the invasion began or the direct attack on the Mariupol theater, a distribution center for medicines, water and food and a designated point for those waiting to be evacuated through humanitarian corridors. The building was found identified by gigantic Cyrillic characters that wrote the word “Дети” –children, in Russian– on its esplanades, in the eyes of Russian satellites and pilots. But the bombs hit the same.
A year later, the expansive force of that first bomb did not extinguish. Nor the demand for justice
The involuntary displacement of civilians to Russia – many of them unaccompanied, separated or orphaned children, as well as elderly civilians – is cynical and cruel. Many are trapped later due to lack of information, economic resources and mobility. And the ‘mock’ trials of Ukrainian prisoners of war in a sham ‘international court’, in the battered Mariupol, no less, practices represent illegal and abusive practices, as well as another act of cruelty against this city.
Not to mention the journalists and activists on trial in Russia for trying to pierce the veil of propaganda. A year later, the expansive force of that first bomb did not extinguish. Neither does the demand for justice.
*Executive Director of Amnesty International Argentina.
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