Covington Secures Historic Victory for Ukraine Before the World Court
January 31, 2024
WASHINGTON—Covington has secured an unprecedented victory for Ukraine in proceedings against the Russian Federation before the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) — the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.
Following a two-week-long hearing in the Peace Palace in The Hague, the ICJ issued a judgment on 31 January 2024 holding Russia liable for violations of core obligations under the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (“Terrorism Financing Convention”) and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (“Racial Discrimination Convention”), as well as the Court’s Provisional Measures Order that Covington secured in 2017.
“This is a historic day for Ukraine, and for international law. This is the first time ever that the World Court has held the Russian Federation accountable for its violations of international law,” said Covington partner Marney Cheek, counsel for Ukraine.
The Court first declared that Russia violated its obligation under the Terrorism Financing Convention to investigate allegations of terrorism financing by persons in Russia, including by failing to cooperate with Ukraine in the investigation of terrorism financing offenses.
“When Ukraine faced terror and violence in its Donbas region starting in 2014, it asked for Russia’s cooperation. Russia refused. Today, the World Court sent the important message that this violated international law,” said partner David Zionts, counsel for Ukraine.
The Court also found that Russia violated the Racial Discrimination Convention when it significantly reduced the availability of education in the Ukrainian language in Crimea after 2014, producing a disparate adverse impact on the Ukrainian community in Crimea amounting to a pattern of racial discrimination and failed to give due regard to the rights and needs of Ukrainian children and their parents.
“Russia has been held accountable for its discriminatory efforts to cut off Ukrainian children in Crimea from their language, their culture, and their ethnic community,” said Covington partner, Jonathan Gimblett, counsel for Ukraine. “The Court’s judgment sends a clear message to Russia that it must bring this discriminatory policy to an end.”
The Court also sent a powerful message: Russia’s recognition of the so-called People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, “severely undermined the basis for mutual trust and co-operation and thus made the dispute more difficult to resolve” — a clear violation of the Court’s Provisional Measures Order.
Russia also violated that Order by maintaining its ban on the Mejlis, a representative institution of the Crimean Tatar community in Crimea.
The Covington team representing Ukraine is led by partners Marney L. Cheek, Jonathan Gimblett, and David Zionts, together with partner Clovis Trevino, and associates Volodymyr Shkilevych, Paris Aboro, Amanda Tuninetti, Ariel Rosenbaum, Minwoo Kim, Paul Strauch, *Jill Warnock, Gabriel Gates, Gaby Vasquez, staff attorney Lilia Ostapenko, and paralegals Ambria Davis-Alexander, Caroline Ennis and Liam Tormey. Covington represents Ukraine in partnership with Professor Harold Hongju Koh of Yale Law School, Professor Jean-Marc Thouvenin of Paris-Nanterre University, and Ukrainian counsel German Galushchenko and Oleksandr Pavlichenko.
The full text of the ICJ’s Judgment can be found at Judgment of 31 January 2024 (icj-cij.org).
*no longer with Covington.
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