The Netherlands: MH17 Tribunal at the UN level is a 'dead end' Monday, February 8, 2016 7:57:00 PM

The Netherlands do not plan to return to the idea of having an International Tribunal investigate the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 at the United Nations (UN) level. This was disclosed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Bert Koenders, during a press meeting and was reported by Elsevier, an academic publishing company based in Amsterdam.

“The government, in cooperation with partners of the joint investigation team, has decided that the best option for the prosecution of those responsible for the tragedy, will be the establishment of a Tribunal under the UN auspices. However, Russia has blocked this decision,” Koenders said.

He also noted that at present, this option is a “dead-end”. According to Koenders, the most realistic option seems to be an organization of the Tribunal in one of the countries included in the joint investigation team: Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands or Ukraine. Another option would be to hold the judicial proceedings in one of these countries.

As reported on July 29th, 2015, the UN Security Council failed to adopt a resolution to establish an International Tribunal for an investigation of the crash of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. The only vote blocking this resolution was made by Russia, who is a permanent member of the Security Council. Ukraine has since advocated for a reform of the UN Security Council to limit the veto power of permanent members.

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