Austria has joined the Enlarged Partial Agreement on the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, the country’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday, April 15.
“Accountability is a key trajectory of Austria’s foreign policy. There can be no lasting peace in Ukraine without accountability,” the ministry wrote on X.
The move adds Austria to a growing group of countries backing efforts to prosecute senior Russian political and military leaders over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
What is the Special Tribunal
The Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine is being established under the framework of the Council of Europe to prosecute top-level leadership responsible for launching the war.
The tribunal aims to fill legal gaps left by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which cannot prosecute the crime of aggression in this case due to jurisdictional limitations.
The crime of aggression is one of four core international crimes defined under the Rome Statute, alongside genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Who has joined so far
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said earlier that at least 16 countries are required to formally establish the tribunal.
As of mid-April, 13 Council of Europe member states and one external country had agreed to join, including the UK, Germany and Moldova.
The broader list of participating countries includes the UK, Estonia, Spain, Costa Rica, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, Germany, Slovenia, Ukraine, Croatia and Sweden – and now Austria.
Austria’s decision brings the number of participating countries closer to the legal threshold needed to launch the tribunal.
Why is a new tribunal needed?
The tribunal is intended to prosecute Russia’s leadership for its decision to launch the invasion of Ukraine – a crime that falls outside the jurisdiction of existing courts.
While the ICC can prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, it cannot pursue the crime of aggression in this case.
Similar ad hoc tribunals have been established in the past, including those for the former Yugoslavia and the Nuremberg trials after World War II.
The proposed tribunal would focus specifically on senior political and military leadership, rather than individual war crimes cases handled by other courts.