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

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

Details

No. 11484 - amendments to criminal legislation in connection with the ratification of the Rome Statute (241)

Addendum

In August, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy introduced a draft law aimed at bringing the provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in line 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 of an Aggressive War" is to be replaced with "The Crime of Aggression" - planning, preparation or unleashing of 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).

Zelenskyy also proposes to change the title of Article 438, "Violation of the Laws and Customs of War," to "War Crimes." The punishment in this article remains unchanged.

In addition, the Criminal Code is supplemented with new articles, including "Crimes against humanity," i.e., intentional commission as part of a deliberate large-scale or systematic attack on civilians, which is expressed in:

• persecution of any 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 defined by international law as unacceptable;
• deportation of the population, i.e., the forced and in the absence of grounds provided for by international law, the movement (expulsion) of one or more persons from the area in which they legally resided to the territory of another state;
  
• Forced displacement of the population, i.e., the forced and in the absence of grounds provided for by international law, transfer (eviction) of one or more persons from the area in which they legally resided to another area within the same state;
  
• rape, sexual exploitation, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization or any other form of sexual violence;
  
• slavery or human trafficking;
  
• enforced disappearance;
  
• illegal deprivation of liberty;
  
• torture;
  
• other intentional inhuman acts of a similar nature, accompanied by the infliction of great suffering or serious bodily injury or serious harm to mental or physical health.
  

Such criminal violations are punishable by imprisonment for a term of 7 to 15 years.

Recall

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