HIGH-LEVEL PANEL: Battlefield Evidence and Transitional Justice

08.12.2022, 15:30 - 17:00 Main Stage - Level 0 Human security and transitional justice

Since the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine in 2014, significant efforts have been made to harness international law towards pursuing accountability for international crimes committed and seeking justice for victims. There is now an abundance of national and international actors working to document, investigate, prosecute and adjudicate international crimes. Parliamentarians, national law enforcement agencies, civil society organizations, open-source investigators, lawyers, academics and international and national courts and tribunals are all involved in the justice process. This creates complexities. Given that information and evidence is being collected in real-time, is there a risk of over-documentation, or of evidence being collected which is inadmissible in future proceedings? How should evidence collected on the battlefield, through digital technologies, or through witness testimonies taken by civil society organizations in Ukraine or elsewhere feed into the justice process? What does justice mean to the victims? With the conflict ongoing, should Ukraine prioritize justice through individual criminal responsibility, accountability for the Russian aggression, reparations, continued psychosocial and other support for victims, or other means? In this high-level panel, these and other questions raised by experts from Ukraine, United States, and Poland on international crimes and the justice process will be discussed.