Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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54. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the further measures that Ireland can take to ensure that war criminals committing atrocities in Ukraine will be brought to justice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48986/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Ireland supports initiatives to bring to account perpetrators of atrocity crimes, including war crimes, committed in Ukraine since Russia’s latest invasion of that country last February.

To that end Ireland, along with its EU partners, joined with over 40 States earlier this year to refer the situation in Ukraine to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The purpose of that referral was to remove the need for the Prosecutor to engage in a lengthy authorisation process before the Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber which would otherwise have been required before he could begin investigations into crimes alleged to have occurred in a country such as Ukraine which is not a party to the Statute of the ICC. As a result of this referral the ICC now has jurisdiction over any international crimes, including war crimes, that have been committed on the territory of Ukraine since 21 November 2013.

The Prosecutor has now commenced investigation activities in Ukraine which are intended to lead to the prosecution at the ICC of individuals for the commission of international crimes, including war crimes.

As part of Ireland’s support for the Court, on 14 April I announced that Ireland will make a voluntary contribution of €3 million to the ICC, with €1 million to be distributed immediately to the Office of the Prosecutor. This contribution will be used to benefit the ICC’s work across all situation countries, not just Ukraine.

In addition to the investigation being undertaken by the ICC, a number of investigations into international crimes committed in Ukraine have been commenced by the authorities of several states under their domestic laws. These include investigations by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General and the national authorities of a number of European states relying on the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Since 25 April Eurojust, the EU agency responsible for coordinating investigations and prosecutions of serious cross-border crime, has established a Joint Investigative Team consisting of the relevant authorities in Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia, as well as the ICC, to coordinate the collection and sharing of evidence of atrocity crimes committed in Ukraine. Ireland has supported the work of Eurojust in this area by opting-in to the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1727 of the European Parliament and the Council. This Regulation, which entered into force on 31 May, enables Eurojust to collect, preserve and analyse evidence relating to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and, when necessary and appropriate, enable its exchange or otherwise make it available to competent national or international judicial authorities.

On 14 July the Attorney General represented Ireland at the Ministerial Conference on Accountability for Ukraine hosted by the Dutch Government in The Hague. Ireland, along with other participating states at the conference, adopted a Political Declaration committing to establish a ‘Dialogue Group’ to assist in coordinating criminal investigations between Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, other countries’ prosecuting authorities and the ICC.

The Government remains committed to ensuring accountability for atrocity crimes committed in Ukraine and continues to examine all options for further supporting effective efforts to that end.