Liability for wartime collaborative activities in the mechanism of implementing the right to the truth and forming memory policy

The article examines accountability for collaborationist activities in the context of the implementation of the right to truth and the formation of memory policy during an armed conflict. The relevance of the study is conditioned by the need to shape an official state narrative amid ongoing armed aggression. The authors proceed from the premise that the state’s response to collaborationism is significant not only as an element of criminal law policy but also as an instrument of collective reflection on the traumatic experience of occupation, the establishment of symbolic justice, and the prevention of the distortion of historical facts. The study is based on an analysis of international legal instruments (the Geneva Conventions, UN resolutions), the case law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee, as well as the scholarly works of leading Ukrainian and foreign legal experts. The article analyzes the evolution of the concept of the right to truth in international law, its individual and collective dimensions, and its interconnection with memory policy as a component of national security. Particular attention is paid to the legal nature of collaborationist activity as a crime against the foundations of Ukraine’s national security and to an analysis of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The study explores how the establishment of criminal liability for certain forms of collaborationism, including the public denial of armed aggression against Ukraine and the implementation of the aggressor state’s educational standards, contributes to the realization of the right to truth and the formation of an official narrative about the events of the armed conflict. Based on an analysis of judicial practice, the article demonstrates that punishment for collaborationist activity performs not only preventive and punitive functions but also has a long-term memorial effect, as it documents facts of cooperation with the occupation authorities, prevents revisionism, and contributes to the preservation of national identity. The article concludes that accountability for collaborationism is an important element of the mechanism for realizing the right to truth and one of the instruments for shaping memory policy even prior to the end of the armed conflict.