Amendments to the Criminal Code in connection with the ratification of the Rome Statute: Parliament adopted the draft law as a basis

The Verkhovna Rada adopted as a basis a bill by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, aimed at aligning the provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and ensuring criminal prosecution for the most serious international crimes, it was reported by MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, UNN reports.

Details

No. 11484 – Amendments to criminal law in connection with the ratification of the Rome Statute (241)

Addition

In August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky introduced a bill aimed at aligning the provisions of the Ukrainian Criminal Code with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and ensuring criminal prosecution of the most serious international crimes.

It is proposed to change the titles of some articles of the Criminal Code. In particular, Article 437 “Planning, preparation, unleashing and waging an aggressive war” should be replaced by “The crime of aggression” – planning, preparation or unleashing an aggressive war or military conflict, as well as participation in a conspiracy aimed at committing such actions, which will be punishable by a more severe penalty – imprisonment for a term of 10 to 15 years (currently 7 to 12 years), as well as for waging an aggressive war or aggressive military actions – imprisonment for a term of 10 to 15 years or life imprisonment (currently 10 to 12 years).

Zelensky also proposes changing the title of Article 438, “Violations of the laws and customs of war,” to “War crimes.” The penalties in this article remain unchanged.

In addition, the Criminal Code is supplemented with new articles, including ‘Crimes against humanity’, that is, the intentional commission of a deliberate large-scale or systematic attack on civilians, which is reflected in:

• persecution of an identifiable group or community, i.e. restriction of fundamental human rights on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, sexual or other grounds (characteristics) of discrimination considered unacceptable by international law;
• deportation of the population, i.e. the forcible transfer (expulsion) of one or more persons from the area in which they are lawfully resident to the territory of another State, unless there are grounds for this which are provided for by international law;
• Forced transfer of population, i.e. the forced displacement (expulsion) of one or more persons from the area in which they are lawfully resident to another area within the same State, unless there are grounds for this under international law;
• rape, sexual exploitation, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization or any other form of sexual violence;
• slavery or human trafficking;
• forced disappearance;
• unlawful deprivation of liberty;
• torture;
• other intentional inhuman acts of a similar nature causing great suffering or serious injury to body or serious damage to mental or physical health.

Such offenses are punishable by imprisonment of 7 to 15 years.

To remind

The Verkhovna Rada supported the ratification of the Rome Statute by 281 votes. Before the vote, MPs received statements of support from the General Staff and Budanov, although the discussion was tense with arguments for and against.