International Humanitarian Law Under Stress: Reflections from Ukraine on Bridging the Accountability Gap

Event details

Since February 2022, when Russia started its full-scale aggression against Ukraine there have been reports of mass atrocity crimes in the areas under Russian control. Similar allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity have come from recent and ongoing conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Palestine, and Sudan, for example.  Cynics would note that violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), including  war crimes, have not been uncommon in most armed conflicts, and as such IHL, as a system, is in crisis. Others focus on parties to conflict and third States and their lack of political will to comply with the law and do so consistently. Whilst recognising that the arc of the moral universe is long, these commentators would note that ultimately it bends towards justice.

Where does this leave civilians experiencing armed conflict? Does the endemic accountability gap - or in the optimistic scenario, delayed justice -  risk normalising the occurrence of IHL violations as a tragic, but ultimately inevitable consequence of the use of armed force? Dmytro Koval and Svitlana Valko, two leading specialists in the documentation of war crimes, will engage in conversation with Professor Ioana Cismas seeking to answer these questions. They will scrutinise how the use of new(er) methods of warfare, including drones and artificial intelligence, affect  civilians and how actors involved in civilian protection in Ukraine seek to bridge the accountability gap. The speakers will offer their reflections on the lessons Ukraine’s experience can offer to the rest of the world with respect to accountability, the fight against impunity, and the prevention of future mass atrocities.

This event is supported by the Jim Matthew Fund and the Beyond Compliance Consortium. The Beyond Compliance Consortium is funded by UK International Development from the UK government.

About the speakers

Dmytro Koval is Chair of International and European Law at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Co-CEO at Truth Hounds, and a member of the international advisory council of the Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine.

He has worked on international humanitarian law and international human rights law issues  in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Ukraine, advising the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, UNESCO, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Prosecutor General’s Office, and Ukrainian Members of Parliament. 

Svitlana Valko is a specialist in the documentation of war crimes, gross violations of human rights, and crimes against humanity. She is also a security trainer. In 2014, she became Field Coordinator for the International Partnership for Human Rights’ mission in Ukraine, helping to organise the documentation of war crimes. She is one of the founders of the NGO Truth Hounds, a Ukrainian initiative that conducts documentation work related to grave human rights abuses and international crimes committed in Ukraine. 

Ioana Cismas is a Professor at the York Law School and Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York. She leads the UK government funded Beyond Compliance Consortium. This research programme develops the empirical evidence base and a contextualisable theoretical framework on how compliance + restraint by armed actors can prevent, reduce and respond to harm + need caused by war. 

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