The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has voted unanimously to demand the establishment of a special international tribunal to try the political and military leaders of Russia and Belarus “for the crime of aggression in Ukraine “, according to a press release published on Sunday. Thursday.

PACE, made up of members nominated by the national parliaments of the Council’s 46 member states, proposes a tribunal in The Hague “to try the Russian and Belarusian political and military leaders who planned, prepared, initiated or waged the war of aggression of Russia”. Ukraine.

PACE recommends policies for adoption, which are then sent to national governments for adoption.

More background: The trial in an international tribunal echoes a similar call from British lawmakers who last week expressed support for ‘the creation of a special tribunal with a narrow focus on the crime of aggression’ to complement the ongoing investigation. before the International Criminal Court (ICC) on crimes in Ukraine.

The UN has defined aggression as “the use of armed force by a state against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of Nations United”.

“No other international criminal tribunal has jurisdiction to prosecute and punish the crime of aggression against Ukraine, the Assembly noted,” according to the PACE statement.

The ICC cannot investigate the crime of aggression unless the UN Security Council refers the case to it, which is “highly unlikely” because Russia would likely use its Security Council membership to oppose his veto to a dismissal. Russia was excluded from the Council of Europe, founded after the Second World War to defend human rights, in March 2022 after its invasion of Ukraine.

In December, Representatives Bill Keating, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, introduced a bipartisan resolution in the House of Representatives calling for the creation of a special court on the crime of aggression. Government officials neither engaged nor rejected the idea.

CNN’s Niamh Kennedy and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this post.