Putin’s War Crimes Could Be Prosecuted In The United States

On Thursday, January 5, 2023, President Joe Biden signed into law the bipartisan Justice for Victims of War Crimes Act (S. 4240), which expands the scope of individuals subject to prosecution for war crimes. The Justice for Victims of War Crimes Act is to strengthen the efforts to ensure justice and accountability by enabling the Department of Justice to prosecute alleged war criminals who are found in the United States, regardless of the location of the crime and the nationality of the perpetrator or the victim. The law comes in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the growing body of evidence of war crimes perpetrated by Putin’s army.

With the new law, Putin’s war crimes could be prosecuted in the United States. This was not the case until now. The War Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. § 2441), signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 21, 1996, allowed for the prosecution of people who committed war crimes in the United States or abroad, only if the victim or perpetrator was a U.S. national or service member. Perpetrators who targeted non-Americans were not subject to the law even after they entered the United States. As such, Putin and his collaborators who have committed war crimes in Ukraine could not have been subjected to the War Crimes Act unless they targeted U.S. nationals. The Justice for Victims of War Crimes Act is changing this as it allows prosecutors to try alleged war criminals no matter the nationality of the perpetrator or the victim.

The bill, which ultimately became the Justice for Victims of War Crimes Act, was introduced in May 2022, three months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Democratic Whip Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Congresswoman Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.). Among others, in September 2022, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a public hearing on the bill where Eli Rosenbaum, Director of Human Rights Enforcement and Strategy at the Justice Department, called on Congress to address gaps in federal laws that aim to hold international war crime perpetrators accountable in the U.S. Andre Watson, the Homeland Security Department’s National Security Assistant Director emphasized the urgent need to ensure that human rights violators do not find a haven in the U.S. The bill quickly progressed through the legislative process and was ultimately signed into law by President Joe Biden on January 5, 2023.

The importance of this new law cannot be stressed more as we approach the first anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and calls for justice and accountability are omnipresent. Putin stands accused of a litany of crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and even genocide. Civilians, including children, continue to be targeted on a daily basis. The International Criminal Court, the United Nations, including the specially established Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, and prosecutors in Ukraine and several other countries, continue to collect evidence of the crimes. This evidence is crucial to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice, whether in Ukraine or other countries (based on the principle of universal jurisdiction), or before international tribunals. While Putin’s crimes in Ukraine were the driving force behind this important piece of legislation, its application is much broader than Russian war crimes only. It is an important step for the U.S. to play a more active role in ensuring justice and accountability for crimes perpetrated internationally.