International humanitarian law under stress: Reflections from Ukraine on bridging the accountability gap

Event details

Jim Matthew Lecture

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.

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.

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