Daryna Pidhorna in the Kyiv Post on Cultural Genocide and Ukraine’s Role in Shaping International Law

Legal Expert at the Raphael Lemkin Society Daryna Pidhorna has published a new opinion piece in the Kyiv Post examining the cultural dimension of genocide and Ukraine’s potential role in developing new legal standards.

While international law provides mechanisms to prosecute the destruction of cultural heritage, it is far less equipped to address the destruction of memory, language, cultural ties, and identity. Drawing on Raphael Lemkin’s original understanding of genocide, Pidhorna argues that the experience of Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories since 2014 provides extensive evidence of such long-term harm, including Russification, changes to education, suppression of the Ukrainian language, and the rewriting of history.

The article also highlights Draft Law No. 15331, which proposes incorporating the cultural dimension of genocide into Ukrainian criminal law and could become an important step toward advancing a broader legal framework internationally.