Today, one of the primary focuses of the National Anti-Crisis Management (NAM) team is to ensure accountability for Lukashenko and his associates for their crimes, including crimes against humanity against the Belarusian people, and war crimes, and specifically, crimes related to the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territories to Belarus.
The regime is aware of the potential threat posed by the issuance of an arrest warrant for Lukashenko and is attempting to evade such a situation. Nevertheless, the NAM team remains steadfast in its work. So far, the team has taken three significant steps to pursue justice against dictator Lukashenko and his accomplices.
1. The NAM team prepared a preliminary report on the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children, which has been:
Presented at the Council of Europe and the European Parliament in May 2023;
Shared with deputies of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine;
Submitted to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, EU countries, and the US State Department;
Transferred to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the Commissioner for Human Rights of Ukraine;
Widely disseminated through international and global media channels.
2. On June 27, 2023, NAM submitted a communication to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in accordance with Article 15 of the Rome Statute. This communication detailed the unlawful deportation/transfer of Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territories to Belarus.
3. Today, on November 7, 2023, the NAM team will submit the second part of the communication to the ICC, which includes additional evidence of war crimes committed by dictator Lukashenko and his accomplices.
According to reports and materials compiled by the National Anti-Crisis Management (NAM) team, the following developments and acknowledgments have taken place:
Numerous media outlets worldwide, including The Telegraph, Reuters, Sky News, The Economist, Associated Press, Washington Post, Fox News, New York Times, US News, ABC News, and others, have produced materials highlighting the role of the Lukashenko regime in war crimes.
In its resolution dated April 27, 2023, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) recognized the responsibility of the Lukashenko regime for criminal actions related to the unlawful displacement of Ukrainian children.
On May 3, 2023, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine made amendments to the "Appeal to parliaments and governments of foreign states, international organizations and their parliamentary assemblies to condemn the crimes of forced deportation of Ukrainian children committed by the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus." These amendments specifically emphasized Lukashenko's involvement in the unlawful displacement of Ukrainian children.
During the summit of heads of state of the Council of Europe held on May 16-17, 2023, in Reykjavik, the declaration was updated to include the role of the Lukashenko regime in the aforementioned criminal acts.
In May 2023, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine initiated an investigation into the unlawful displacement of Ukrainian children to Belarus. The NAM team continues to collaborate closely with the Prosecutor’s General's Office on this matter.
On June 12, 2023, at the international conference "Responsibility of the Lukashenko regime for crimes against humanity and the migration crisis: prospects for international justice" in Vilnius, a preliminary report on the illegal displacement was presented by the NAM team. The conference was organized by the Ministry of Justice, Lithuania, and the Center for Law and Democracy (Lithuania).
In August 2023, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, raised the issue of the involvement of the Lukashenko regime in war crimes in a statement at the UN Security Council. The statement referenced data provided by the NAM. It is worth noting that the US Ambassador to the United Nations is a member of the President's Cabinet and the US National Security Council.
The NAM team is systematically and diligently working towards holding those responsible for the crimes to account. The responsibility for the committed crimes is inevitable.