NEW YORK, 14 NOVEMBRE – In a new special session, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution against Russia by 94 votes to 14 with 73 abstentions. Italy was one of the co-sponsor of the draft which calls upon the the 193 U.N. Member States to create “an international registry” to document claims of damage, loss or injury caused by the Kremlin’s war of aggression against Ukraine: factories, residential homes and hospitals, as the Ukrainian Permanent Representative, Sergiy Kyslytysya, said ahead of the vote.
China was among the countries that voted against the resolution, while India abstained. Also the Bahamas, Belarus, North Korea, Cuba, Central Africa,
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Mali, Nicaragua, Syria and Zimbabwe voted against the draft.
“Under international law, Russia is under an obligation to make full reparation for the damage caused by its internationally wrongful act. There is no question of whether Russia should pay, but rather of when it will pay, and how much”, said the EU Permanent Representative Olof Skoog. “Russia must be held accountable for such suffering and destruction”, echoed the Italian Permanent Representative to the U.N., Ambassador Maurizio Massari: “Since the beginning Russia’s war of aggression deliberately targeted also civilians and civilian infrastructures in order to cause great harm to the people of Ukraine. The picture that is emerging after Russia’s recent withdrawal from Kherson is once again one of destruction and pain inflicted on the local population,” he added.
The resolution does not establish any standing UN reparation or compensation mechanism: “It is instead aimed at providing global legitimacy by recommending to Member States the creation of an international register of damage. Such register of damages will coordinate and organize evidence-gathering efforts, including those carried out in the context of various investigations by UN bodies. Such register will make sure that the collected evidence will be properly organized, recorded, and properly used in legal proceedings,” the Italian diplomat observed.
According to Massari, “reparation for civil claims, as well as for Russia’s internationally wrongful acts, is not only a fundamental obligation under international law, but it is also an essential step towards achieving peace and post-conflict recovery, as well as for the future reintegration of the aggressor State in the community of peace-loving nations, as laid down in Article 4 of the UN Charter. Reparations related to damages caused by Russia’s wrongful acts are meant to bring justice to the victims for death, injury, torture, deportation, forced displacement”. (@OnuItalia)
