In the fourth year of Russia’s ongoing aggressive war against Ukraine, a meeting of human rights defenders from Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus took place in Prague on September 16−18, 2025. Organized with the support of the CEELI Institute, the event brought together more than fifty participants: experts from European countries, lawyers, human rights defenders, legal practitioners, and activists from the three countries.
The meeting’s main purpose was to exchange experiences in documenting war crimes, discuss effective advocacy methods, and analyze systemic barriers preventing justice for crimes related to the war in Ukraine. These meetings launched as a pilot programme in response to the full-scale invasion and have become a platform for professional dialogue between lawyers and human rights defenders against the backdrop of major changes in the international legal order.
Participants note that in recent years, the architecture of international institutions has undergone a major transformation: Russia and Belarus are consistently withdrawing from key international treaties and agreements, while the international community is creating new bodies to bring the perpetrators to justice.
During the Prague meeting, special attention was paid to creating the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine in 2025, designed to fill the gaps in the mechanisms for bringing to justice those guilty of the crime of aggression and to give hope to societies. Participants note that the importance of such meetings goes far beyond the exchange of experience. In conditions of war and the destruction of legal institutions, they create a unique space for cooperation between civil societies in the three countries, where professional dialogue becomes a way of preserving human rights standards and creates a platform for discussing post-war challenges.