The executive board of the International Association of Genocide Scholars issued a statement saying that Putin was "misappropriating and misusing the term 'genocide'".
According
to report, Ukraine will ask the United Nations' top court on Monday to issue an
emergency ruling requiring Russia to stop its invasion, arguing that Moscow's
justification for the attack is based on a faulty interpretation of genocide
law.
Although
the court's rulings are binding and countries generally follow them, it has no
direct means of enforcing them.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin has said Russia's "special military action"
is needed "to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and
genocide" - meaning those whose first or only language is Russian - in
eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine's
suit argues that the claim of genocide is untrue, and in any case does not
provide legal justification for invasion.
The case
it has lodged at the World Court, officially known as the International Court
of Justice (ICJ), centres on the interpretation of a 1948 treaty on the
prevention of genocide, signed by both countries. The treaty names the ICJ as
the forum for resolving disputes between signatories.
"There
is absolutely no evidence that there is genocide going on in Ukraine," the
association's president, Melanie O'Brien, told Reuters.
The
Russian embassy in The Hague did not immediately respond to questions from
Reuters about the case.
The ICJ
can order fast-track "provisional measures" in a matter of days or
weeks to prevent a situation from worsening before it looks at the merits of a
case, or whether it has jurisdiction.
Ukraine
sought provisional measures from the court in 2014 after Russia's annexation of
Crimea, and the ICJ ordered both sides not to worsen the dispute.
The
hearings start at 10 am (9am UK) with Ukraine presenting its case. Russia is
due to respond on Tuesday.
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