Speech on International Forum: "In Search оf Lost Universalism" July 3, 2025, Vilnius (online)

Good afternoon, colleagues and friends!

I am Mykhailo Savva, an expert at the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties. This organization received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 together with Memorial and Belarusian human rights activist Oles Bialiatski for documenting war crimes and protecting human rights during the war. I am a doctor of political science, professor and a 1998 graduate of the School of Political Studies. The moderator of our session, Inna Berezkina, has already said this. But if I do not say this, Lena Nemirovskaya will not forgive me.

I am speaking to you from the Kyiv region. I live in the suburbs of Kyiv, in a large urban agglomeration of Bucha, Gostomel, Irpen and Vorzel. This is a very beautiful place where the Russian military committed terrible crimes.

The main question of our session: Is it possible to rethink accountability and transitional justice? The current situation shows that it is not a question of opportunity, but of our duty. It is a question of our survival as free people who have rights. I am not dramatizing, but basing myself on facts. A few days before the start of full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine, Russia and China signed a joint declaration. It stated very frankly that there are no universal human rights. Human rights are what the political regimes of these countries understand by human rights. A few days later, the war began. Russia began to expand the territory in which its “new order” operates. I think “new order” is a good name, because the historical analogy with Hitler’s “new order in Europe” is very meaningful. Several dozen authoritarian and neo-totalitarian regimes act as a united ideological and political front. At the same time, representatives of such regimes like to talk about how they are the majority of the world in quantitative terms, and therefore they want to dictate the rules.

Russia's aggression has not only created new problems and exacerbated old ones. In my opinion, this aggression has finished off the global legal system, destroyed international humanitarian law and the idea of ​​living by the rules in general. By the way, right now the Kremlin is experiencing what it's like to live without rules. I mean the response of the Aliyev regime to the murder of two Azerbaijanis in Russia.

As a result of the destruction of the global legal order, the Putin regime has created the greatest demand for justice and reform since World War II.

I know a lot about war crimes. I received a certificate of documenting such crimes on February 24, 2022. I recorded these crimes in the field during the occupation of part of the Kyiv region. People were killed before my eyes. But now I am talking to people who, I am sure, understand what happened and continues to happen before our eyes. Therefore, I want to use my 12 minutes to talk about what can be done to prevent this from happening again.

I will start with tactics. With what can be done right now, together with Ukrainian, Russian, Lithuanian and other human rights activists. I want to make an important digression - I am actively working with Russian human rights activists, and I am not the only one doing this in Ukraine. Without them, we would not be able to help Ukrainians who have become victims of war crimes in the occupied territories and in Russian prisons. Our Russian colleagues and friends risk losing their freedom and even their lives. However, they do what they consider important. There are things that I can only talk about in my memoirs, if I live to write them. Since March 2022, such a unique instrument of interaction as the Bilateral Contact Group on Humanitarian Issues has been in effect. This speaks to the sustainability of our interaction.

The simplest and most important thing you can do today is to join the international information campaign People First. This campaign was initiated in January of this year by several organizations, including two Nobel laureates. These are the Center for Civil Liberties and Memorial. If we show this campaign in the human dimension, then Inna Berezkina is one of its initiators. The campaign is aimed at the political elites of countries around the world so that during any negotiations with Russia they first of all raise the issue of releasing people. But it is important for us not only to have understanding from the Pope or the President of the United States. It is important for us to have understanding from all the people who participate in decision-making. When I am in Europe and talk to such people, I often encounter misunderstanding. I am talking about the fact that Russia has kidnapped and deprived of freedom up to 16 thousand Ukrainian non-combatants. These people are not charged, but they are kept in captivity. This is not internment, which is provided for by the Fourth Geneva Convention. This is a completely illegal procedure of deprivation of liberty for an indefinite period without the slightest guarantee of human rights. These people are starved, tortured, some are killed. When I say all this, I see in the eyes of my interlocutor: “This is impossible. Putin wears a suit. He wears a tie, and says that he is for peace” ... For me, this is a dangerous misunderstanding of the scale and severity of evil.

You can get involved in the work of initiating new sanctions at the national level and on the scale of the European Union. The second is more difficult, because there is Orban and Fico. I have already started talking about the problem of civilian hostages. So far, no country has introduced a special package of sanctions against Russian officials and organizations for the illegal deprivation of liberty of non-combatants. The targets of such sanctions should not only be the heads of Russian pre-trial detention centers and prisons. There are three criminal organizations that are directly guilty. These are the Federal Penitentiary Service, the Military Police of the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Security Service. A strong signal is needed - you are criminals and you will be punished.

You can get involved in advocacy for universal jurisdiction. That is, in the work to bring Russian war criminals to justice within the framework of universal jurisdiction. In most European countries, it is possible to initiate such criminal cases. But so far, only Finland has successful experience. I mean successful experience in prosecuting Russian war criminals. Lithuania has experience investigating the crimes of the Belarusian regime. Other countries should use this experience. There are many problems, and new ones arise every day. We cannot solve all these problems from Ukraine. International solidarity is very important for us. For example, Russia has concentrated more than 800 Ukrainians in temporary detention centers for foreign citizens. These are former Ukrainian prisoners who ended up in the occupied territories and served their sentences in Russia. These are citizens of Ukraine who lived in the Russian Federation for years and then received a court decision on deportation. All these people are periodically thrown out (literally) in Lars across the border with Georgia. They live for months in the basement of an unfinished terminal. Without Georgian human rights defenders and volunteers, we can do almost nothing to help these people who need to return to Ukraine. When I talk about Georgian human rights defenders, I also mean Russians who now live and work in Georgia. What can be done strategically? Unfortunately, Ukrainian human rights defenders today simply do not have the opportunity to engage in strategy. There is a Ukrainian expression: "Не на часі (Untimely)." This means that we understand the importance of the problem, but we do not have time to deal with it, there are more urgent matters.

Nevertheless, we have started preparing a reform of international humanitarian law. We have started doing this without resources. Simply because we understand that it is important. We have collected and summarized violations of the Geneva Conventions during the Russian aggression, and we continue to do so. Violations of international humanitarian law are currently occurring mainly in Ukraine, because the largest war in the modern world is taking place there. There are problems of violations of international humanitarian law caused by technical progress. In 1949, when the Geneva Conventions were signed, there was no Internet. Therefore, prisoners of war are not allowed to use electronic means of communication. The telegraph can be used in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, but the telegraph no longer exists. There is a large group of problems related to the weakness of the mechanisms for monitoring compliance with the norms of the Geneva Conventions. We already understand in what format changes to international humanitarian law are possible. This is a new additional protocol to the Geneva Conventions. In our narrow expert circle, we call it the "Digital" or "Kyiv Protocol". We have spoken with representatives of the depository of the Geneva Conventions, that is, the Swiss authorities. They are very cautious about the idea of ​​reforming international humanitarian law. The most realistic way to begin such work is to prepare and adopt a special protocol that would take into account the realities of the modern digital world. It is already necessary to create an international expert group and deepen the understanding of these problems. Ukrainian human rights activists cannot initiate this today, but we will be able to join those who can find resources for such work. August 1 is an important anniversary. On this day, the Helsinki Accords, which enshrined the modern configuration of human rights, will turn 50. The authoritarian-totalitarian majority of the planet is attacking the idea of ​​the universality of human rights today. Therefore, August 1 will be a holiday for us “with tears in our eyes.” What can civil society do to counter the attack on human rights? Who are our allies in protecting human rights? We have many unanswered questions. We need a new strategy, at least on a European scale. Lena Nemirovskaya, opening today, said that in the late 80s - early 90s, when the Soviet system began to fall, we did not know what to do. This is true, I was there too. We cannot repeat this mistake.

Thank you for your attention, I am ready to answer questions.