Ukrainian Survivors Call for States Not to Forget Pre-2022 Victims

Ukrainian Survivors Call for States Not to Forget Pre-2022 Victims

Today, States will gather for a diplomatic conference in The Hague for the opening of the Convention Establishing an International Claims Commission for Ukraine. The Convention establishes an administrative body which will assess claims of compensation for “damage, loss, or injury” caused by Russian aggression in Ukraine.

For survivors, the Commission represents not only a pathway to financial redress, but a long-awaited recognition of their suffering, their rights, and their place at the centre of the pursuit of justice.

Ukrainian survivors have released a statement (also available in Ukrainian), urging States to sign and ratify the Convention. The statement highlights the need for an inclusive and victim-centred approach to reparations, including victims who were harmed before the full-scale invasion.

While the survivor groups welcome the creation of the new compensation mechanism, including the Register of Damage, and the International Claims Commission, they also raise a critical concern that the scope of the Convention excludes all victims of internationally wrongful acts committed between 20 February 2014 and 23 February 2022.

The Russian invasion and occupation of Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions began in 2014, yet the full-scale invasion did not occur until 2022. Individuals who were victim to Russian aggression between 2014 and 2022 include victims of torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and displacement in Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk, among other crimes.

For survivors who have been waiting over a decade for justice, amending the Convention to include victims from before the full-scale invasion is not just a technical adjustment: it is a necessary act of recognition and dignity, as underlined by Oleksandr, a member of “Alumni”, an organisation of men who survived torture and conflict-related sexual violence:

“Fair compensation is the right of victims and the path to restoring dignity. We call on international partners to help establish an inclusive compensation mechanism that does not discriminate and takes into account the entire experience of captivity, torture, and inhuman treatment, including the period prior to the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation, from the beginning of the conflict in eastern Ukraine in February 2014.”

Survivor groups argue that expanding the Convention’s temporal scope is not only morally necessary but legally sound. Under the Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, a State’s liability begins when the wrongful acts start, not when they escalate. Both the UN General Assembly and the EU parliament have indicated that Russia’s aggression began in 2014, not 2022. The harms that victims have suffered since then are part of the same continuous pattern of violations.

Key Recommendations by Survivor Groups

In November, REDRESS supported a group of Ukrainian survivors to discuss reparations with international justice actors and decision-makers in The Hague. The Claims Commission was at the heart of these discussions, highlighting the urgent need for comprehensive and inclusive reparation for Ukrainian survivors. The group developed the following recommendations, which are echoed in today’s statement:

The survivor-led statement asks States to:

Sign and ratify the Convention Establishing an International Claims Commission for Ukraine.
Ensure that the Claims Commission is sufficiently funded and operational in the shortest timeframe possible.
Amend the temporal scope of the Claims Commission’s mandate, in accordance with Article 33(2) of the Draft Convention to include damage, loss and injuries caused by the Russian Federation since 20 February 2014.
Take measures to ensure the disbursement of the compensation to victims, including through directing a part of any potential “reparations loan” or a part of any other funding mechanism linked to frozen Russian assets, or related profits, towards the Fund.
Ensure that the reparation process takes into account the nature and degree of harm suffered by individual victims, through an appropriate prioritisation strategy, which takes into account the needs of the most vulnerable groups.

REDRESS joins Ukrainian survivor organisations in calling for an International Compensation Mechanism that reflects the realities of the conflict, is in line with international law, and places all survivors of Russia’s crimes at its centre. As States meet in The Hague, they must correct this arbitrary gap in the Convention and ensure that justice and reparations are delivered to all victims.