The Nuremberg Academy has published the Nuremberg Declaration on the Crime of Aggression, which condemns Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine and calls for all perpetrators to be brought to justice.
“In 1945, the crime of aggression was prosecuted for the first time in history by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. A promise was made to criminalise aggression to prevent future wars,” the Nuremberg Academy said in a statement. At that time, Robert H. Jackson, the chief US prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, declared that state actors should be held accountable before the law.
The director of the Academy, Professor Christoph Safferling, states the need to maintain the international legal order and insists on fulfilling the promise made in Nuremberg. The Academy put the crime of aggression in Ukraine on the agenda and convened international experts to discuss ways to fulfil the promise.
“After consulting with experts, the International Academy of the Nuremberg Principles, in its Nuremberg Declaration on the Crime of Aggression, calls for the implementation of the Nuremberg Principles everywhere and at all times, and especially now with regard to Ukraine,” added Director Safferling.
I welcome the Nuremberg Declaration which draws a direct link between the Nuremberg Tribunal and the Special tribunal on the crime of aggression against Ukraine we’re working on now. Russian leadership, like Nazi leadership in 1945, must be prosecuted for the crime of aggression. https://t.co/DRUVSQPdNT
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) May 8, 2023
The Academy is outraged by the ongoing aggressive war waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and the involvement of Belarus in this aggressive war, and takes into account the UN General Assembly Resolution on aggression against Ukraine ES 11/1 (2022), which qualifies Russia’s actions as an act of aggression.
“The International Academy of the Nuremberg Principles, after thoroughly discussing these issues with leading experts in international law at the historic Nuremberg Palace of Justice, reaffirms that the crime of aggression is a crime under international law, emphasises that this crime entails individual criminal responsibility, and calls on the international community to ensure the prosecution of crimes of aggression and to support the establishment of a tribunal to prosecute crimes of aggression as defined by international law committed on the territory of Ukraine,” the statement reads.
The Declaration notes the individual criminal responsibility for crimes under international law in accordance with Nuremberg Principle I and Principle III, stating that “the fact that a person who has committed an act constituting a crime under international law was acting as a Head of State or responsible government official does not relieve him or her of responsibility under international law”.
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