January decision at Council of Europe to allow other states to join Special Tribunal – Tochytskyi

This was reported by Mykola Tochytskyi, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe, in an interview with Ukrinform.

“In January, a decision on the Enlarged Partial Agreement on the Management Committee of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression is to be adopted. We plan to implement this at the beginning of the year. It is essential that the document itself has been fully finalized, without any remarks, and is ready for approval. In other words, this is the framework on the basis of which the tribunal will then be established,” the diplomat said.

According to him, the Enlarged Partial Agreement will allow other countries to join the Tribunal.

“During our work, representatives of Canada, Australia, and Japan attended the meetings. We would like them to join our team. As for the number of countries, four additional states have now expressed readiness; that is, in one form or another, they have stated that once the Enlarged Partial Agreement is approved and the Management Committee is in place, they will also become direct participants,” Tochytskyi noted.

He also informed that the EUR 10 million allocated by the European Union for the establishment of the tribunal will be used directly for the work of the Advance Team.

“It will work on the parameters of the future tribunal: how many judges there should be, what premises are needed, and which penitentiary facilities will be used. This team will begin work in January, after the Council of Europe signs an administrative agreement with the EU on the allocation of these funds,” Tochytskyi explained.

As reported, during discussions at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg in October, 25 EU member states agreed to join the work of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression.