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On Monday, Ukraine will ask the United Nations’ top court to make an emergency judgement ordering Russia to cease its invasion, claiming that Moscow’s argument is based on a mistaken interpretation of genocide law.
Although the court’s decisions are legally binding and are typically followed by other countries, it has no direct methods of enforcing them.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that Russia’s “special military action” is needed “to preserve individuals who have been subjected to bullying and genocide” in eastern Ukraine, alluding to those who speak Russian as their first or only language.
Ukraine’s action claims that the charge of genocide is false, and that it does not give legal grounds for invasion in any scenario.
The complaint it has filed with the World Court, officially known as the International Court of Justice (ICJ), concerns the interpretation of a 1948 convention signed by both countries on the prevention of genocide. The ICJ is the forum for resolving disputes between signatories, according to the treaty.
Putin was “misappropriating and misusing the term ‘genocide,'” according to the executive board of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, who released a statement last week.
“There is absolutely no evidence that there is genocide going on in Ukraine,” the association’s president Melanie O’Brien told Reuters.
When Reuters inquired about the case, the Russian embassy in The Hague did not immediately answer.
In a matter of days or weeks, the ICJ can issue “provisional measures” to prevent a situation from worsening while it considers the merits of a case or whether it has jurisdiction.
After Russia’s takeover of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine petitioned the ICJ for interim measures, and the court ordered both sides not to escalate the conflict.
Ukraine will deliver its case at 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) on Monday. On Tuesday, Russia will answer.
