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Oslo Peace Days Event: Accountability and Justice in Ukraine
On 9 December 2025, Dr Gaiane Nuridzhanian, Associate Professor and Leader of the Research Group for Human Rights and International Law at UiT Faculty of Law, participated in Oslo Peace Days 2025.
Oslo Peace Days is a forum for discussion about peace, freedom, democracy and human rights held every December in connection with awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Together with representatives from the United Nations, Council of Europe, Norwegian and Ukrainian Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Nuridzhanian spoke at an event dedicated to justice for international crimes and human rights violations during the war in Ukraine. This event was organized by the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights.
State Secretary Eivind Vad Petersson opened the event by emphasising that accountability for international crimes and human rights violations was important for just and lasting peace. Petersson added that justice does not happen automatically and requires action.
Appeal by Ukrainian Margaryta Shabanova in support of release of her husband Dmytro Shabanov imprisoned in Russia showed one of many personal tragedies inflicted by the war.
Erik Møse, Chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, spoke about the work of United Nations in Ukraine. Møse pointed out that the UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine was a fact-finding body which collected evidence of atrocity crimes in Ukraine and prepared the ground for accountability. Since its establishment in March 2022, the Commission has found evidence of wilfull killings, unlawful attacks on civilians, torture and rape, enforced disappearances, forced deportation of the population and destruction of cultural property committed by Russia in Ukraine.
Various internarional and domestic justice mechanisms are involved in accountability for international crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine. Among them is the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, an ad hoc tribunal that is being established based on an agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe.
Mykola Yurlov from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine spoke about key legal features of the Special Tribunal such its jurisdiction and rules on immunity of state officials responsible for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. Yurlov also commented on difficulties of involving many thousands of victims of aggression in the proceedings before the Special Tribunal and the need for other effective compensation mechanisms such as Claims Commission for Ukraine being set up under the auspices of the Council of Europe. This intervention was followed by a panel discussion on the Special Tribunal chaired by Professor emeritus Geir Ulfstein, University of Olso.
The panelists – Gaiane Nuridzhanian from UiT, Irene Suominen from the Council of Europe and Kristian Jervell from Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs – discussed challenges in negotiating and establishing the Special Tribunal, lessons that can be learned from other ad hoc criminal tribunals and the impact of the current peace proposals on the future functioning of the Special Tribunal.
Publisert: 19.12.2025
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