Ukraine: International Claims Commission Convention

Baroness Coffey Excerpts

Tuesday 30th June 2026 Grand Committee

[Baroness Coffey (Con)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to speak in this debate. I appreciate the decision of the committee to ask for this matter to be debated. As President Zelensky said in 2023 in The Hague:

“There can be no peace without justice”.


The Council of Europe is on a twin-track at the moment regarding holding Russia to account through the creation of this commission for civil accountability, as well as the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, to cover criminal culpability, going beyond what the ICC can do, as my noble and learned friend Lady Prentis set out.

My noble and learned friend has already received praise, but I will repeat some of that. I pay particular tribute to the work that she did when she was the Attorney-General in initiating a lot of the work that is going into this special tribunal. More broadly, we can all be proud of the fact that the British Government—whether the previous Conservative one or the current Labour one—have been a leader on accountability.

I am a member of the delegation to the Council of Europe—I must say that I am slightly surprised that I am the only one here today debating this—and I can assure your Lordships that this really matters to the Ukrainian delegates. We had our plenary session last week, and, understandably, after the UK Government led the action to kick out Russia from the Council of Europe, this is a really important place for Ukrainian MPs to vent their concerns and to inspire us to keep going. That is why earlier this month it was good to see another important milestone in the development and operation of the register of damage, which met for the seventh time earlier this month. Once there are sufficient ratifications, the register will be folded into the claims commission.

It was good to hear the tributes paid to our ambassador, Sandy Moss, as he was stepping down from the bureau, having helped steer the register and the convention forming the commission. It is worth reading out his comments at the latest meeting—he has been chair of this steering group. He said:

“To truly deliver for Ukraine and its people, we must work collectively to achieve three things: ensure that every Ukrainian, both inside and outside the country, knows about the Register and how to submit a claim; establish the Claims Commission as soon as possible to provide clarity and tangible progress for what comes next; and secure global participation to demonstrate that accountability is backed by a broad international coalition standing with Ukraine. Ultimately, the Register is about people—every loss must be recorded—and our responsibility as a Conference of Participants is to provide unwavering political support and strategic direction. I am confident that Conference members will continue working together to build an effective and credible compensation mechanism that delivers compensation for Ukraine and its people, reminding the world that we will stand with Ukraine and pursue accountability and justice for as long as it takes”.


I am sure that we all think that those words were very worthy of being spoken on behalf of the United Kingdom.

The committee’s chair asked a number of questions. I will not repeat them but I have one very specific question to the Minister. Only six countries so far have ratified. When will the UK’s letter of ratification be deposited? I know the Government are working at an unusual pace to get this ratified—that is a compliment, by the way—but the people of Ukraine need this and we need to get on with it. Slava Ukraini.