The Hague, the city of peace and justice, will soon become the seat of a new international organisation: the Ukraine Damage Register.
The new international institution, to be set up under the auspices of the United Nations, will record complaints about the devastation caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Dutch government agreed on Friday, February 17, 2023, to host the new institution.
Russia invaded its former brother nation a year ago. Residential areas, roads, hospitals, schools, and crucial infrastructure, such as facilities to produce electricity, have been bombed.
“The United Nations have said: We must write down somewhere in one spot how big the damage is so that we can claim compensation from the Russians later,” Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra told Dutch daily, AD.
He estimates the damage caused by the Russian invasion in Ukraine at hundreds of billions of euros.
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When it finally comes into existence, the UN Schaderegister (Damage Register) will just record communications about damage, to create a judicial and historical record. It will not evaluate the claims and adjudicate. Possible reparations to victims may be awarded later, by international courts or other competent institutions.
It is expected to be set up this year and will join numerous other international institutions such as the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the UN, that make The Hague the legal capital of the world.
