Russia’s military advance on Ukraine has been going on for a few days now, and condemnation has been directed towards the transcontinental country from all corners of the globe. The latest entity to censure Russian actions in Ukraine is the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the principal international air navigation agency of the United Nations.
ICAO statement
The ICAO council met on February 25th at its headquarters in Montreal, Canada, and issued a hard-hitting statement relating to the matter. At the meeting, representatives of 36 countries were present. These countries are members of ICAO’s Governing Council and are elected for a three-year period by the ICAO Assembly.
The Russian Federation is a council state for the 2019-2022 term, but Ukraine isn’t. Nevertheless, a representative from the country was allowed to participate in the session since the body was discussing matters related to Ukraine.
An excerpt from the UN agency said,
“Council States condemned the violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of a United Nations Member State, including its airspace, as being inconsistent with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and Article 1 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention). The Council also expressed grave concerns on the latest developments in Ukraine, and solidarity with its people, in direct alignment with the sentiments expressed by the United Nations Secretary General in his statements to the UN General Assembly on 23 and 24 February 2022.”
Article 1 of the Chicago Convention refers to each member’s country’s sovereignty over their airspace. The same must be recognized by every country signing the convention. The official signed document describes Article 1 as:
“The contracting States recognize that every State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory.”
The ICAO argues that, by invading Ukraine, Russia has violated Article 1 of the Chicago Convention of 1944. Both Russia and Ukraine are signatories to the Chicago Convention.
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The International Civil Aviation Organization
So what does the ICAO do? It is an intergovernmental organization that facilitates diplomacy and cooperation among various countries concerning matters related to civil aviation. The organization’s main job is “to maintain an administrative and expert bureaucracy supporting diplomatic interactions, and to research new air transport policy and standardization innovations...”
In simple terms, ICAO decides infrastructure and rules for all aviation-related purposes like air traffic management, navigation, and airport classification. Without this UN agency, civil aviation would be pretty complicated if each country was to make up its own set of rules. It is the ICAO’s job to issue guidelines for standard practices to be followed by all of its 193 signatory countries. Of course, the final authority still rests with individual countries and local governing laws.
Some background
Ukraine has been subjected to a world of destruction by Russia’s military might for the past few days. This comes after several weeks of US President Joe Biden, other NATO members, and allies warning of Russia’s intention of invading the second-largest European country. Approximately three days ago, Ukraine closed its airspace for civil aviation as Russian forces began their offensive on the country.