Council of Europe sets up steering committee for Special Tribunal on Russia’s crime of aggression: Why it matters

The Council of Europe has approved the creation of a steering committee for the Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. 

The meeting where the decision was adopted. Photo credit: Iryna Mudra

The decision was adopted at a meeting of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, attended by 37 states.

Ukrainian officials explained that the decision marks a point of no return, effectively making the Special Tribunal a legal reality. The “accountability infrastructure,” as the ministry calls it, will consist of three elements: the Special Tribunal, the International Claims Commission, and the Register of Damage.

Diplomats noted that the vote took place just one year after the political decision regarding the tribunal was made in Lviv.

“In terms of speed for international criminal justice, this is a true legal record,” they said.

For reference, the definition of the crime of aggression is set out in the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court, which Ukraine joined in 2025. However, effective prosecution for this crime remains impossible for now, a reality that differs significantly from the practice of punishing war crimes, for instance. This path was chosen not by accident, but as a compromise; otherwise, any mention of the “crime of aggression” might not have appeared in the statute at all, as ZMINA Human Rights Center earlier explained. 

Last year, member states of the International Criminal Court postponed the consideration of amendments to effectively punish the crime of aggression until 2029, and ZMINA explained Ukraine’s role in this process.