Transitional Justice in Ukraine

Abstract

AbstractFrom day one of the Russian aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, independent investigators and advocates for Transitional Justice (TJ) started to collect data and evidence of possible war crimes and to use these to hold perpetrators, war criminals, and politically responsible stakeholders accountable once the war ends. This has been the beginning of a TJ process in Ukraine that could last for decades, regardless of how long this war will last. It aims to hold perpetrators and war criminals to account, reckon with past injustice and war crimes, vet and lustrate perpetrators and bystanders and compensate victims for leveraging democratic institutions and processes in Ukraine. Before the war, the country suffered from high corruption levels and low rule of law. Holding perpetrators to account on all sides, regardless of nationality, could be a chance for Ukraine to restore and leverage the rule of law. Nevertheless, it is a unique process because it is multi-level and multi-stakeholder based, using evidence from NGOs, the UN, OSCE, the EU, and other governmental and non-governmental investigators. Such a process requires careful assessment of the data and evidence provided because fake data and manipulation of narratives and proof have been part of this war from day one. ‘Disinformation and cyber war’, the ‘cell phone war’, and ‘hybrid war’ are just a few of the metaphors used to describe this war thus far. In this chapter, I argue that disentangling the array and different levels of stakeholders in this process is pivotal for the success of TJ in Ukraine.