The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ordered Russia to stop invading Ukraine, saying the court saw no evidence supporting the Kremlin’s justification for the war, that Ukraine was committing genocide against the Russian-speaking population in the country’s east.
The court ruled by 13 votes to two in favor of an interim order that “the Russian Federation must immediately suspend hostilities that it launched on February 24, 2022 on the territory of Ukraine.” Only Russian and Chinese judges voted against the order.
The presiding judge, American Judge Joan Donoghue, said the court “has no evidence to substantiate” Russia’s allegations of genocide in Ukraine. In any case, she said, it is “doubtful” that the Genocide Convention gives any authority for “the unilateral use of force in the territory of another State.”
Consequently, she said, “the court considers that Ukraine has a plausible right not to be subjected to military action by the Russian Federation.”
Judgments of the International Court of Justice are binding under the UN Charter, and the court’s ruling notes that they “create obligations under international law for any party to whom provisional measures are addressed”, but have no means of enforcement. This is unlikely to influence Putin’s choice, but provides an authoritative rebuttal to his often-used pretext for starting a war.
“Ukraine has won a complete victory in the case against Russia in the International Court of Justice,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. on twitter. The MS ordered an immediate halt to the invasion. The order is binding under international law. Russia must obey immediately. Ignoring the order will further isolate Russia.”
The order was issued in response to Ukraine’s February 26 court filing seeking an urgent ruling on Russia’s uncorroborated allegations that Ukrainian forces were committing genocide in Russian-backed enclaves in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine as justification for the attack.
Russia was not present at the initial hearing on March 4, and its lawyers did not appear at the decision hearing on Wednesday. Instead, they sent a letter to the court arguing that the International Court of Justice had no jurisdiction over the case because Russia formally justified the attack in a letter to the UN Secretary General on grounds of self-defence, not genocide.
Donoghue ruled that “the failure of one of the states concerned to appear shall not in itself constitute an obstacle” to the issuance of a preliminary ruling. She also dismissed Russia’s argument of jurisdiction under the Genocide Convention, pointing to frequent instances where Vladimir Putin and other high-ranking Russian officials claimed alleged genocide was the cause of the attack.
“The Court concludes that prima facia it has jurisdiction under Article 9 of the Genocide Convention to hear the case,” Donoghue said.