Ukraine's parliament ratifies Rome Statute

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian legislature supported the ratification of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), also known as the Rome Statute, reported Oleksii Honcharenko, a European Solidarity MP.

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281 parliamentarians voted "for". This was also confirmed by Golos MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, who announced the voting results in the session hall.

The Rome Statute is an international treaty that was established  bythe ICC. Ukraine signed the Rome Statute back in 2000, but it had not been ratified. In Ukraine, there were fears that the ICC would start prosecuting the Ukrainian soldieres or that Russia would flood the court with fabricated cases against Ukraine.

The statute enables the ICC to investigate and prosecute those guilty of the four most serious international crimes:

→ war crimes;

→ crimes against humanity;

→ crime of aggression;

→ genocide.

On August 15, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a bill on the ratification of the Rome Statute.

On August 17, Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk stated that the Rome Statute is the global standard for combating war criminals, and it is especially important for Ukraine now.

Read also: Ukraine's parliament passes law banning Russian Orthodox Church