Ukrainian NGOs call on ICC to address UN Secretary-General’s meeting with Putin

A coalition of dozens of Ukrainian civil society organizations has issued a joint statement condemning UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s visit to Russia and his meeting with Vladimir Putin, who is currently under an ICC arrest warrant.

Guterres traveled to Kazan, Russia, to attend the BRICS summit (October 22-24), where he planned to meet with Putin on the summit’s final day. The visit drew sharp criticism, particularly in light of his earlier decision to decline participation in Ukraine’s Peace Summit in Switzerland in June 2024.

The NGOs, including Fight for Right, Free Zone, The Reckoning Project emphasized that Guterres’s visit undermines both the ICC’s authority and UN values. They specifically pointed to Uthe N’s own 2013 guidelines, which state that “meetings between UN officials and persons who are the subject of ICC arrest warrants should be limited to what is strictly necessary for carrying out UN-mandated activities.”

“The Secretary-General’s visit to Russia and official meetings with Putin undermine the UN’s authority as an international moral compass, as well as its role as a reliable and neutral mediator in achieving sustainable peace based on justice and the rule of law,” the statement reads.

The organizations called on the ICC Prosecutor’s Office to request any information obtained during Guterres’s meeting with Putin that could be relevant to ongoing investigations, citing Article 18 of the UN-ICC Relationship Agreement.

The groups also highlighted the cynical nature of such meetings while UN human rights monitoring missions in Ukraine continue to document systematic human rights violations against civilians during the conflict, including the increase in mass executions of Ukrainian POWs by Russian troops.

In this regard, the NGOs stress the following steps are necessary to take:

• Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute and relevant UN bodies respond to the current situation and take measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
• International Criminal Court and the ICC Prosecutor’s Office respond to this visit and meeting as actions that undermine the authority of ICC decisions and the investigation of the most serious crimes that concern the entire international community and threaten peace, security, and well-being worldwide.
• ICC Prosecutor’s Office requests any information from Mr. António Guterres that was obtained during his meeting with the suspect (Vladimir Putin) and may be useful for the investigation.

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