The United Nations' highest court on Friday ruled that it will hear a case in which Kyiv has asked it to declare it did not commit genocide in eastern Ukraine, as Russia claimed as a pretext for attacking its smaller neighbour.
Ukraine brought the case to the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, days after Russia's full-scale invasion of its territory in February 2022.
On Friday, judges found the court had jurisdiction to hear just a small part of the original case. The judges threw out a request by Ukraine to rule on whether or not the Russian invasion violated the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Instead the panel of 16 judges said they will rule at a later stage on whether or not Ukraine committed genocide in the Donetsk and Luhansk areas of eastern Ukraine now occupied by Russia.
While the court's rulings are final and legally binding, it has no way to enforce them and some states, like Russia, have ignored them.
comments powered by Disqus
All feeds
