Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom have declared their intention to refer Iran to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the 2020 downing of a Ukrainian International Airlines flight over Tehran that killed all 176 people on board.

The four countries had previously formed the International Coordination and Response Group for the victims of Flight PS752 in order to seek accountability and justice for the families of the victims, who were predominantly citizens and permanent residents of the four countries.

The incident occurred on January 8, 2020, when the flight bound for Kyiv went down shortly after takeoff from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport. At the time, tensions between Iran and the United States had reached a boiling point following the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike, and Iran's military had fired missiles on US forces in Iraq in retaliation.

Iranian officials subsequently acknowledged that the shooting of the plane was an accident caused by "human error" in operating a surface-to-air defence system. In response to this tragedy, Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom have been seeking justice for the families of those lost.

Canada, in particular, has taken action by allowing people to seek civil damages against Tehran, an action for which Iran has since filed a complaint with the ICJ, accusing Canada of violating its “international obligations”. Additionally, a Canadian court awarded $84 million (107 million Canadian dollars) to the families of the six victims killed in the crash, and the Iranian government subsequently said it would give $150,000 to each of the victims’ families.

Despite Iran's willingness to enter into discussions with the countries whose citizens were killed in the crash, the four countries have decided to take their case to the ICJ. Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly tweeted on Thursday morning, saying, "Time is up. We will proceed with taking Iran to the International Court of Justice over the downing of flight PS752, as we promised to the families of the victims.

Together, we will seek the transparency, accountability and justice families deserve. Impunity is not an option." It remains to be seen how the ICJ will rule on the case, but the four countries are determined to seek justice for the families of the victims of Flight PS752.