Australia has asked the United Nations to set up an international criminal tribunal to try those responsible for shooting down the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 almost a year ago.
The request is jointly made with Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine, who are helping undertake the independent criminal investigation of the crash that killed 298 people over Ukraine on July 17, 2014.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says a criminal tribunal of the UN's Security Council is the best way to ensure justice for the victims and their families.
Malaysia, a member of the 15-member council, distributed a draft resolution late on July 8, which it hoped could be adopted later this month, diplomats said.
A report by a multinational investigation into the cause of the crash, led by the Netherlands, is due later this year. Malaysia, Australia, Belgium and Ukraine are also part of the joint inquiry.
On July 21, 2014, the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that demanded that those responsible "be held to account and that all states cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability."
Forty three Malaysians, including 15 crew members, were killed in the crash.
The tragedy was the second major aviation disaster to hit the country and the national carrier just four months after a Beijing-bound MH370 disappeared off the radar with 239 passengers and crew on board.
Following the disaster the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak condemned the "inhumane" action of the shooting down of the plan during a special parliament session on July 23, 2014.
With 193 of the dead from the Netherlands, the Dutch have been taking a leading role in the international effort to investigate the cause of the crash.
Prosecutors are testing the theory that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air BUK missile fired from an area held by pro-Russian forces. But they say they do not expect to issue indictments until after the Dutch Safety Board releases a report in October detailing how the plane was downed.
Russia for its part has put forward a scenario, denied by Kiev, that the airliner was downed by a rocket fired from a Ukrainian fighter jet.
With relations between Russia and the West at their lowest ebb since the Cold War, Moscow might have little interest in cooperating with any trial held in the West.
- with AAP
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