Mobile Justice Teams (MJT). Ukraine

The Mobile Justice Teams (MJTs) have emerged as the leading component of support for Ukraine’s justice system as it attempts to process innumerable violations of international law before and during Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. This illegal aggression has resulted in extensive violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international criminal law (ICL), including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and potentially genocide. These violations have concurrently significantly damaged Ukraine’s legal infrastructure, limiting its (already under-resourced) capacity to investigate and prosecute these grave crimes. The response to this legal crisis has been, in part, led by an international collaborative effort, namely the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine (ACA), designed to support the Office of the Prosecutor (OPG) and associated investigative agencies, pursuant to which the MJTs operate as the principal, on-the-ground, partner of the ACA.

Our Services and Activities

Providing a range of legal, investigative, forensic, and transitional justice expertise in the field where crimes occurred, and where the OPG and investigators work. The MJTs are staffed with multi-disciplinary (legal, investigative, and prosecutorial) experts to be able to readily provide tailored support. Whether concerning detention crimes (e.g., torture), CRSV, crimes against and affecting children, crimes against critical civilian infrastructure (e.g., health care, schools, sports halls, etc.), deliberate harm to the environment, or starvation crimes – strategies, operational plans, and SOPs are essential to provide focused investigations within the constraints of limited resources
Subsequent case building rests upon a range of expertise, including trauma-informed and survivor-centred methodologies, the effective interviewing of witnesses and victims, the preservation of crime scenes, the forensic examination of ballistics and missile strikes, open-source intelligence gathering, the identification of IHL violations, crimes against humanity, and genocide, and the collation of a wide range of diffuse circumstantial evidence to build cases against the top political and military leadership.
Coordination and collaboration between national authorities, civil society, and international partners to ensure a comprehensive and holistic approach to justice. By providing this ongoing support continuously and in situ, the MJTs ensure that the work of local actors is sensitively peer-reviewed, analysed objectively, supported throughout, and completed as expeditiously as possible according to international best practices.

Partners

GRC’s Mobile Justice Team is a part of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA). The ACA is a multilateral initiative established by the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the United States.

GRC engages in strategic partnerships with the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Regional Prosecutor’s Offices, National Police of Ukraine, and the Security Service of Ukraine. It also cooperates closely with the leading civil society organisations and journalistic communities.