Positive Complementarity in Action: International Criminal Justice and the Ongoing Armed Conflict in Ukraine

What is it about?

Achieving peace in situations of armed hostilities is always a primary goal – achieving justice for the victims, however, is just as important. Criminal justice responses to mass atrocities can take many different forms, the effectiveness of those being inextricably linked to the genuine cooperation between international actors and domestic stakeholders. The ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine, triggering various interactions between international and domestic actors to provide justice to the victims, and the indispensable role performed by the civil society, presents a prime example of the positive complementarity in the international criminal justice system in action. Aksamitowska, Anosova and Sancin are in this analysis not limiting themselves to the principle of complementarity that explains the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. They rather delve into its conceptualisation as the broader principle that governs the functioning of the international criminal justice system, outlining the interplay between different (domestic and international) accountability actors, including national authorities and civil society. This article explores the ways in which the system of positive complementarity has been operationalized in Ukraine since 2014, highlighting the challenges faced by domestic and international justice actors in the situation of atrocities being comitted in an ongoing armed conflict.

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