Legal Accountability for the Holodomor-Genocide of 1932–1933 (Great Famine) in Ukraine

Abstract

This article deals with the problem of legal accountability for the 1932–1933 Holodomor in Ukraine under international and regional legal instruments, international customary law and Ukrainian legislation. The article focuses on Ukraine’s obligation to punish persons for the grave human rights violations of the communist regime then in power in accordance with the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) and Council of Europe Resolutions 1096 (1996) and 1481 (2006). The author concludes that holding the Communist Party of Ukraine responsible for the Holodomor will help Ukrainians to cope with their totalitarian communist past.

Keywords

• the holodomor of 1932–1933
• genocide
• convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide
• legal accountability for genocide