The draft principles of International Law Commission (ILC) refer to “satisfaction”, which consists in “an acknowledgement of the breach, an expression of regret, a formal apology or another appropriate modality” as the third form of damage compensation – reparations.
Satisfaction is intended as a form of compensation for damage caused by a violation that cannot be quantified and, as such, is “unsuitable” for compensation in other forms. With regard to satisfaction, international instruments provide for some flexibility depending on the nature and extent of the damage.
According to international practice, in the case of damage caused directly to the country or international organization, the latter has the right to claim damages from the country or international organization that caused the damage. Compensation for moral damage is endowed with peculiarities. It should be noted that in the study of satisfaction, the terms “moral”, “psychological” and “spiritual” harm are used synonymously. The endowment of this category of damage with certain features is due to the fact that the destruction of, for example, forests, pollution of water bodies with consequences in the form of extinction of fish and related plants, entail not only actual material damage, environmental degradation but also moral damage to citizens who enjoyed and/or cared about such natural resources. In view of the scale of the hostilities, we can speak, without exaggeration, about spiritual damage to all the people of the state in the territory of which the damage was caused. In the case of such “special” damage, its compensation should be performed by “special” actions. These actions take various forms, such as official apologies, symbolic actions, such as raising a flag or sending a delegation to mediate, prosecuting and imposing internal penalties, including administrative, disciplinary and judicial measures against the state or individuals.
