This report is part of ongoing coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. <\/span><\/i>Visit our dedicated page<\/i><\/b><\/a> for more on this topic.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Evidence of Russian potential war crimes in Ukraine has been mounting, as photos and reporting showing mass executions, <\/span>mass graves<\/b><\/a>, and (in some cases, tortured) bodies of civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha circulate online.<\/span><\/p>\n Xander Meise, associate teaching professor in the legal skills in social context program, poses for a portrait. Photo by Matthew Modoono\/Northeastern University<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Amnesty International on Thursday <\/span>said<\/b><\/a> that Russian military forces have been carrying out \u201cextrajudicial\u201d killings of civilians following new on-the-ground research from the scenes of executions. Civilian deaths in the war have greatly increased in recent days, with deaths in cities like Mariupol surpassing 5,000, according to the <\/span>Associated Press<\/b><\/a>. On Friday, <\/span>a Russian missile strike<\/b><\/a> on a train station in Kramatorsk reportedly killed 50 people, including five children.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n News@Northeastern spoke to <\/span>Alexandra Meise<\/b><\/a>, associate teaching professor of law at Northeastern, about how the international community can proceed in trying Russian leaders, namely Russian President Vladimir Putin, for alleged war crimes. She previously taught international human rights law, and years earlier worked for the court that tried senior Khmer Rouge leaders in Cambodia.<\/span><\/p>\n Her comments have been edited for brevity and clarity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Everyone now has a cellphone, or more than one cellphone, and so we are seeing images in real time, or nearly immediately afterwards. That, combined with the volume of the data, is a scale that we haven\u2019t really seen before.<\/span><\/p>\n Ukraine is a country where you had a very high degree of technology use before the conflict. In fact, many of the world\u2019s top technology experts work in Ukraine. So, you have potentially millions of people with the equipment and the know-how who could gather pictures and video of alleged crimes and distribute it. But is it <\/span>evidence<\/span><\/i> that could be used in a court of law?<\/span><\/p>\n We commonly use this phrase \u201ca picture is worth a thousand words\u201d\u2014and it can be. But a picture also has context. And we need the context for the picture. That will include details such as who took it, where it was taken\u2014and I mean a very precise location, like the GPS coordinates\u2014the directionality of the picture (is it facing north, is it facing east?), the time of day, points of reference in the picture that can help confirm size and proportions, etc. You start to get this whole list of information that you need or want.<\/span><\/p>\n When we\u2019re thinking of evidence, we also have to ask: What\u2019s the chain of custody? Electronic files can be copied, they can be altered, they can go through many hands before they get to their destination. As much as original files can be preserved in their original format the better, but how does one do that in a dynamic environment that is still an active conflict zone? There are a lot of questions raised in this area.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It also has to be underscored that pictures and videos alone have limits. They may show us what\u2019s in the four corners of a particular frame, but they may not show us the intent or mindset of those in the image or who perpetrated the acts that caused what we see in the image. That\u2019s crucial context too.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>ICC<\/b><\/a> has made clear that there isn\u2019t head-of-state immunity. So a head-of-state can be charged, and the <\/span>Rome Statute<\/b><\/a> also says there\u2019s no statute of limitations for crimes within the court\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/span><\/p>\n Evidence can be gathered now, preserved, and we can wait, if that\u2019s what has to happen before a case can proceed. There are certainly circumstances where a warrant has been issued for someone to appear before an international criminal tribunal, and it has taken a very, very long time for that person to actually see their day in court. Sometimes that\u2019s because a person is very good at hiding. Think of some of the folks charged from the former Yugoslavia\u2014they managed to hide for quite a while before being caught. So that\u2019s one of the obstacles in the process; but there are obligations for those who are State Parties to the Statute to act in conformity with the Statute\u2019s text and purpose. If there\u2019s a warrant issued pursuant to ICC processes, parties are supposed to act in accordance with that.<\/span><\/p>\n These are all spelled out clearly in the Rome Statute. War crimes occur during times of armed conflict; crimes against humanity can occur during times of armed conflict, or possibly during times of <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> armed conflict. Some acts can be a war crime <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> a crime against humanity, but not all war crimes are crimes against humanity. Crimes against humanity require \u201cwidespread or systematic attack(s) directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n So, killing one person, depending on the context, could be a war crime; but with crimes against humanity, you\u2019re looking at something that\u2019s widespread and systematic\u2014in other words, involving multiple civilian victims.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.northeastern.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Meise.jpg?resize=590%2C393&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n\n How might the images, photos, and videos we\u2019re seeing coming out of Ukraine be used by an entity, such as the International Criminal Court, in pursuing war crime charges against Putin?<\/span>
\n<\/h3>\n\n International law is binding, but I know there\u2019s some question about how to enforce it. Who can be tried\u2014and what are the challenges in actually prosecuting them?<\/span>
\n<\/h3>\n\n What is the difference between a war crime, a crime against humanity, and genocide?<\/span>
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