Amal Clooney Addresses the United Nations Security Council in Arria-formula meeting on ensuring accountability for atrocities committed in Ukraine
On 27 April 2022, Amal Clooney, barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, addressed the United Nations Security Council at a meeting about ensuring accountability for atrocities committed in Ukraine, hosted by the Permanent Missions of Albania and France in cooperation with Ukraine.
“Ukraine is, today, a slaughterhouse. Right in the heart of Europe,” said Ms. Clooney, going on to emphasize that while the international response to the war in Ukraine has been unprecedented, the world, and the UN, could have done more to prevent this and other wars. As she put it: “I believe we got here by ignoring justice for too long”.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, 141 countries voted in the UN General Assembly to condemn Russia’s aggression, UN-led investigations have been set up, 43 countries have referred the situation to the International Criminal Court, at least 13 countries have started their own war crimes investigations and a network of governments has imposed the toughest financial sanctions ever seen on a major economy. In her speech, Ms Clooney warned that these actions needed to be the starting point, not the high point, of fighting for justice for the victims of atrocities in the country. She spoke of the parallels she saw between Ukraine and Syria, and the lessons learned from previous cases she had worked including the ISIS genocide of the Yazidis.
Ms. Clooney, who is part of a legal Task Force on Accountability for Crimes Committed in Ukraine and was asked by Ukraine’s government to provide advice on accountability, outlined clear ways in which governments can take “concrete steps towards justice” for Ukraine, including, “showing clear and unequivocal support for the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction” and making countries a “hostile environment for war criminals”. Ms Clooney also called on the “United Nations to establish a compensation commission. So that Ukrainians, after this war, can have a chance to rebuild their lives.”
In closing her address to the UN, Ms. Clooney said now was the time for a possible turning point for international justice. Citing one of her first international trials – that of Slobodan Milošević – she reminded the room that no one thought it was possible for a former President to face trial, but it happened.
“So sometimes, justice takes time,” she said. “You may have to wait for someone to be out of office. You may have to wait for some of their underlings to defect. You may have to wait for them to get old. Or to travel. But if we remain very focused, and very resolute, justice may yet be within our reach.”
Ms Clooney’s speech was published in full by Just Security and can be accessed here.
Further details on the legal Task Force can be accessed here.
