Justice ministers from over 40 countries attended the conference, including Gunnar Strömmer (M) from Sweden. The conference took place a day after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, who are accused of illegal deportations of Ukrainian children.
It is the first time that the court has issued an arrest warrant against a leader of a country that is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. The Security Council has five permanent members: China, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Russia.
— We share the belief that President Putin and the wider leadership must be held to account, said Dominic Raab, Britain’s attorney general, when he opened the meeting.
— Let’s make sure that we back up our words with actions, that we back up our moral support with practical means to effectively investigate these terrible crimes, he continued.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan says the arrest warrant should be seen as a “somber occasion” to remind the world that collective action is key to bringing justice to Ukraine.