MEP: International Court Of Justice May Award Reparations To Lukashenko's Regime
- 4.06.2025, 9:48
We could be talking about a sum of around 200 million euros.
The statement, sent by Lithuania to the UN International Court of Justice for the organized by the Belarusian authorities mass assault of migrants at the EU borders, has become a precedent and may lead to the fact that Belarus will be ordered to pay reparations for these crimes. Whether such a scenario is possible, "Belsat" told MEP Dainius Zelimas.
Dainius Zelimas explained that the decision to submit such a statement was made after certain procedures. The Belarusian authorities deliberately organized and encouraged the transfer of migrants from third countries across the Lithuanian border and did not try to prevent it. Moreover, they did not take the necessary measures to protect these migrants. This is interpreted as a violation of the international protocol on illegal migration.
"So, this protocol stipulates certain requirements: if one country believes that the other has violated the provisions of this protocol (and this is the position of the Republic of Lithuania), efforts must first be made to resolve the dispute peacefully through negotiations," notes Dainius Zelimas.
If this fails - and in fact, the interlocutor notes, it has not succeeded, as there have been many attempts to reach an agreement through negotiations - then the parties cannot agree on a solution. But the parties have not agreed on arbitration.
"As a third measure, there is an appeal to the International Court of Justice, which will consider the dispute and recognize or not Belarus responsible for violations of the protocol," says the MEP.
As a result, the court may recognize that Belarus has indeed violated the provisions of the protocol. If this happens, Lithuania may be entitled to reparations - compensation for the additional costs incurred to strengthen the border and other related measures. According to calculations, it could be about 200 million euros, which could be ordered by an international court.
Is there a chance to get this amount? Dainius Zelimas noted that the amount mentioned is the Lithuanian government's calculations. If the International Court of Justice does take up the case and recognizes that Belarus has violated the protocol, it will assess how accurately the amount was determined, and will decide how much should be recovered, but eventually some amount may be awarded.
"Yes, you're right: there is no force mechanism to force Belarus to pay this money. But such a decision will, as they say, "hang" until Belarus will not comply with it, as there are no appeals or some kind of challenge to this decision," says the interlocutor.
He believes that the International Court of Justice has already issued many such decisions, and it happens that they are implemented only after a long time. But the main thing here, Zelimas believes, is to move the case from the political to the legal level. And the very fact that the state is officially recognized guilty of violating international obligations and is obliged to compensate for the damage is already a certain success.
We should remind that on May 19, Lithuania filed a petition to the International Court of Justice on the violation of Belarus' obligations under the protocol against the smuggling of migrants by land, sea and air of November 15, 2000, which supplements the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.