“Pravova derzhava”. Issue 36 (2025), pages 398–414.

DOI: 10.33663/0869-2491-2025-36-398-414

Malysheva Nataliia
Activities of the United Nations Compensation Commission for Compensation of Damage to the Victims of the Armed Conflict in the Persian Gulf: lessons for Ukraine

The article analyzes the organization and activities of the United Nations Compensation Commission in terms of compensation for environmental damage caused as a result of Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait in 1990–1991 and large-scale environmentally hazardous acts committed in the occupied territory. For the first time in international legal practice, the relevant structure demonstrated the comprehensive use of jurisdictional mechanisms for the fair resolution of issues of compensation for environmental damage caused as a result of armed conflicts of an international nature.
The author emphasizes the impossibility of accepting the form of creating a structure to address the issues of environmental damage caused by the Russian Federation in Ukraine on the basis of a decision of the UN Security Council, given the permanent veto membership of Russia in the relevant body. Other jurisdictional mechanisms of compensation for environmental damage that have already been used at the international legal level are analyzed: the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the adoption of UN General Assembly resolutions. Besides, the article provides grounds for Ukraine not only to use the existing precedent-setting opportunities of the structures for compensation of environmental damage, but also to create its own precedents.
At the same time, the experience of the UN Compensation Commission, analyzed in detail in this article, is important for Ukraine, given both the substantive and procedural features of the relevant institution. Such analysis is intended to promote a better understanding of the proper legal grounds to initiate claims for compensation for environmental damage, the key requirements for preliminary preparation of documentation for submission to international jurisdictional authorities, the elements of forming the evidential basis of claims, and the application of methods for calculating environmental damage that are globally adapted and acceptable to the international expert community.
Key words: international jurisdiction, international armed conflicts, UN jurisdictional structures, international compensation mechanisms, UN Security Council, UN General Assembly resolutions, UN Compensation Commission, environmental damage compensation, precedents.

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