The European Court of Human Rights (HUDOC) found the Russian authorities responsible for the systematic violation of human rights on the territory of the occupied Crimea.
Points of attention
- Ukraine won a case against Russia at the HUDOC regarding human rights violations in the occupied Crimea.
- The HUDOC's decision is historic and indicates systematic practices of rights violations in the territory under Russian control since 2014.
- Russia is recognised as responsible for various violations of human rights in the occupied territory of Crimea, including illegal detention, discrimination and cruel treatment of political prisoners.
- Ukraine proved systematic violations of human rights in Crimea by Russia, winning the first of three lawsuits before the HUDOC.
- The international court's decision is a step towards bringing the guilty to justice and restoring justice in the temporarily occupied territory of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.
The ECtHR found Russia guilty of violating human rights in the occupied Crimea
According to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, the HUDOC made a historic decision.
Lubinets emphasised that Ukraine won the first of three lawsuits against the aggressor country at the HUDOC.
This has been going on since 2014, when Ukraine filed the first complaint. The second and third were in 2015 and 2018, respectively. This victory means that our state has proven the existence of systematic violations of human rights in the Crimean Autonomous Republic since 2014. It is about: illegal detention of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars on the peninsula; forced passporting of our citizens; suppression of peaceful assemblies and protests; discrimination against Crimean Tatars; violation of the rights of political prisoners, cruel treatment of them and others, Lubinets noted.
The Ombudsman emphasised that the ECtHR's decision is proof of Russia's insidious lies regarding the observance of human rights in Crimea.
It is also one of the steps on the way to bringing the culprits to justice and restoring justice, Lubinets said.
What was Russia found guilty of during human rights violations in the occupied Crimea
According to Margarita Sokorenko, Commissioner of the European Court of Human Rights at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, Ukraine has proven the existence of systematic violations of human rights since the beginning of the occupation of Crimea by Russian terrorists in February 2014.
In particular, the court found unanimously that Ukraine proved the existence of administrative practice on the part of Russia:
disappearances and lack of effective investigation;
ill-treatment and illegal detentions;
the illegal spread of Russian legislation, as a result of which the courts in Crimea cannot be considered as established in accordance with the law;
forced change of Ukrainian citizenship to Russian;
systematic mass searches;
forced transfer of convicts to the territory of Russia;
attacks and persecution of religious leaders who did not belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, searches and confiscation of property;
closure of non-Russian media, including Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar TV stations, as well as persecution of journalists;
bans on peaceful assemblies and protests;
expropriation of private property;
closure of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar classes;
violations of the right to freedom of movement between the occupied territory of Crimea and the mainland of Ukraine;
discrimination of the Crimean Tatars
violations of the rights of political prisoners, the impossibility of their return to Ukraine and cruel treatment of them.
This decision is the first in which an international court found Russia responsible for the policy of large-scale and systematic violations of various human rights and freedoms in the temporarily occupied territory of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Sokorenko emphasised.
