The working group is tasked with preparing for the launch of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression, which is being established under the auspices of the Council of Europe. Estonia has been one of the most consistent members of the working group and one of the most vocal advocates for establishing the Special Tribunal within the Council of Europe.
“At a time when Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine is already in its fifth year, we must use every international mechanism available to hold the aggressor accountable for its crimes,” Ambassador Lepik von Wirén stressed. “The purpose of the Special Tribunal is to bring the perpetrators of the crime of aggression before the Tribunal.”
According to the Ambassador, active efforts to make the Special Tribunal operational must continue. She also thanked the working group’s previous chair, Tanja Gonggrijp, who was recently elected Vice-President of the Council of Europe, for her commitment.
An agreement on the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression has been concluded between the Council of Europe and Ukraine. The Tribunal’s task is to investigate and prosecute those bearing the greatest responsibility for the crime of aggression. The founding documents of the Special Tribunal were drawn up by the Core Group established in 2022, which comprised legal experts from 40 countries – including Estonia – as well as representatives of the European Union and the Council of Europe. In June 2025, Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed an agreement on the establishment of the Special Tribunal.
On 15 May 2026, 36 countries, including Estonia, together with the European Union, confirmed in the Moldovan capital Chișinău their readiness to contribute to the establishment of the Special Tribunal. Estonia has completed the necessary domestic procedures: in February this year, the Riigikogu approved the agreement establishing the Management Committee of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression.
Aino Lepik von Wirén was born in Stockholm on 28 October 1961. She graduated in law from Stockholm University in 1987 and also studied at the University of Surrey in England. She began her diplomatic career in 1994 as Director of the Human Rights Division in the Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served as Director General of the Legal Department from 1997 to 1999.
From 1999 to 2003, she served as State Secretary, after which she was Estonia’s Ambassador to Portugal (2003–2006), Israel (2007–2010), the United Kingdom (2010–2014) and Ireland (2018–2022). She has also served as Undersecretary for Legal and Consular Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as Director General of the Department for European Affairs. Before taking up her current post, she served as Director General of the Department for International Organisations and Human Rights.
