VIOLATION OF FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS AS A RESULT OF MILITARY AGGRESSION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AGAINST UKRAINE IN 2022 AND MECHANISMS OF BRINGING WAR CRIMINALS TO LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY

Abstract

The publication covers the issues of violation of fundamental rights and freedoms in Ukraine as a result of military aggression of the Russian Federation which started on February 24, 2022, and also investigates mechanisms of bringing war criminals to legal responsibility. It is noted that wars are the coevals of humanity. This is evidenced, in particular, by the legends and myths of the peoples of the world, the inherent landscape of which is war. Some of the wars we know led to the self-determination of peoples and the formation of political nations, their exit from the colonial dependence of empires and the development of nation-states. Other wars asserted or strengthened authoritarian regimes, and became a prologue to the death of not only states and peoples, but also of entire civilizations. At the same time, at all war times there was a total negative impact on the individual and his fundamental rights, beginning with the right to life, liberty and dignity, and ending with the newest groups of human rights and freedoms – informational, environmental, gender, etc. In ancient times wars were declared not only to the hostile state or city-polis and their armed militia, but also to all inhabitants. From the Renaissance and to the 19th century the tendency to humanize wars becomes noticeable, when states begin to fight with states and not with the population. Under the influence of H. Grotius’s doctrine on the law of war, the laws and customs of war are developed in international law, implying humane treatment of prisoners of war, prohibition of murder, torture and attacks on honor and dignity of civilians, inadmissibility of destruction of civilian infrastructure, etc. The relevant international customs and rules of war were enshrined in the late 19th century – early 20th century in the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions. The horrors of World Wars I and II forced to rethink the reliability of international humanitarian law and to strengthen it in the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Convention of 1949. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the massive and brutal violation by the aggressor state of international humanitarian law and fundamental human rights and freedoms demonstrated the formality of international conventional and institutional mechanisms to protect the postwar world order. The main violations of international laws and customs of war by the Russian army in the temporarily occupied territories and in the areas of military operations, which grossly violate the rights of Ukrainian civilians to life, honor and dignity, freedom of movement, etc., as well as the rights of Ukrainian military prisoners, are analyzed and systematized. It is emphasized that an important way to restore and strengthen international guarantees of fundamental human rights and freedoms during the war is to bring to justice all persons who committed war crimes in Ukraine during the Russian military aggression in Ukraine. Perspective institutional models of inevitable punishment for these crimes are substantiated. The importance of judicial experts in the mechanism of forming the evidence base, which will be used in international courts against war criminals, is emphasized.