[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 93 (Wednesday, May 31, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1847-S1848]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 227--CALLING ON THE PRESIDENT TO SUPPORT THE CREATION 
 OF AN INTERNATIONAL SPECIAL TRIBUNAL TO PROSECUTE RUSSIA'S AGGRESSION 
                            AGAINST UKRAINE

  Mr. CARDIN (for himself and Mr. Kaine) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 227

       Whereas on February 24, 2022, Russia unleashed a full-scale 
     invasion of Ukraine in contravention of international law and 
     the Charter of the United Nations;
       Whereas the Russian armed forces committed mass atrocities 
     in Bucha, Irpin, Kherson, Izyum, Mariupol, Dnipro, and 
     Ukrainian towns occupied by the Russian Federation, including 
     rape, summary execution, and unlawful violence and threats 
     against civilians;
       Whereas the Russian armed forces deliberately choose to 
     target civilian infrastructure to terrorize Ukrainian 
     citizens;
       Whereas on September 21, 2022, Ukrainian President 
     Volodymyr Zelensky stated to the United Nations General 
     Assembly that an aggression tribunal must be established as a 
     ``signal to all `would-be' aggressors, that they must value 
     peace or be brought to responsibility by the world'';
       Whereas on January 19, 2023, the European Parliament, by a 
     vote of 472 to 19, called for the establishment of ``a 
     special international criminal tribunal for the crime of 
     aggression against Ukraine'' in order to ``send a very clear 
     signal to both Russian society and the international 
     community that Putin and the Russian political and military 
     leadership can be convicted for the crime of aggression in 
     Ukraine'';
       Whereas on March 27, 2023, the United States Ambassador-at-
     Large for Global Criminal Justice, Dr. Beth Van Schaack, 
     stated, ``There is no question that Russia's aggression 
     against Ukraine is a manifest violation of the UN Charter.'';
       Whereas Article 2(4) of the Charter of the United Nations 
     states, ``All Members shall refrain in their international 
     relations from the threat or use of force against the 
     territorial integrity or political independence of any state, 
     or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the 
     United Nations.'';
       Whereas United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3314 
     (XXIX), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 
     December 14, 1974, defines aggression as ``the use of armed 
     force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial 
     integrity or political independence of another State, or in 
     any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United 
     Nations, as set out in this Definition'';
       Whereas Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International 
     Criminal Court, as amended by Resolution RC/Res. 6, adopted 
     by the Review Conference at the 13th plenary meeting on June 
     11, 2010, states, in part: ``For the purpose of this Statute, 
     `crime of aggression' means the planning, preparation, 
     initiation or execution, by a person in a position 
     effectively to exercise control over or to direct the 
     political or military action of a State, of an act of 
     aggression which, by its character, gravity and scale, 
     constitutes a manifest violation of the Charter of the United 
     Nations.'';
       Whereas on March 17, 2023, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the 
     International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for 
     President Vladimir Putin and Russian Commissioner for 
     Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova for their responsibility 
     in the war crimes of unlawful deportation and transfer of 
     children, and the International Criminal Court continues to 
     investigate other international crimes within its 
     jurisdiction that have been committed in Ukraine;
       Whereas the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction 
     over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in 
     Ukraine, but it does not have jurisdiction over crimes of 
     aggression in Ukraine because neither Ukraine nor the Russian 
     Federation have ratified the Rome Statute and its amendments 
     related to the crime of aggression;
       Whereas the Russian Federation has committed manifest 
     aggression against the Ukrainian state for which its 
     leadership must be held accountable;
       Whereas the international community must hold those 
     responsible for these atrocities to account for their 
     actions, including Russian President Putin and all of the 
     Members of the Security Council of Russia; and
       Whereas an international special tribunal must be based on 
     the adoption of a United Nations General Assembly Resolution: 
     Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) condemns, in the strongest terms, the Russian 
     Federation's full-scale war and aggression against Ukraine;
       (2) regards the Russian Federation's aggression in Ukraine 
     as an affront to humanity and in contravention of 
     international law;
       (3) calls on the United States to use its voice and vote in 
     international institutions to support the creation of a 
     special international criminal tribunal to hold accountable 
     the leaders of the Russian Federation who led and sanctioned 
     aggression in Ukraine;
       (4) states its expectation that such a tribunal will be 
     formed pursuant to a United Nations General Assembly 
     resolution put forward by friends of Ukraine that would--
       (A) direct the Secretary General of the United Nations to 
     negotiate with Ukraine the terms of the tribunal's scope; and
       (B) ensure that the role of the United Nations--
       (i) would be complementary to the jurisdiction of the 
     International Criminal Court; and
       (ii) would not limit or affect the jurisdiction of the 
     International Criminal Court, including its exercise of 
     jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and 
     possible genocide committed in the context of

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     Russia's ongoing aggression against Ukraine; and
       (5) stands with people of Ukraine in support of their 
     freedom and Ukraine's sovereignty against tyranny.

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