Ukraine wins ECHR case against Russia over human rights violations in Crimea
The European Court of Human Rights has announced a decision on the merits in the first interstate case in the ECHR, Ukraine v. Russia (regarding Crimea).
This was announced by the Commissioner for the European Court of Human Rights Margarita Sokorenko, Censor.NET reports.
As noted, the ECHR recognised that the Ukrainian government had proved the existence of systematic violations of the rights of Ukrainian citizens since the beginning of Russia's occupation of Crimea in February 2014.
What the ECtHR found
In addition, the ECtHR unanimously found that Ukraine had proved the existence of administrative practices on the part of Russia:
- Disappearances and lack of effective investigation in this regard under Article 2 of the Convention;
- Ill-treatment and unlawful detention under Articles 3 and 5 of the Convention;
- The unlawful spread of Russian legislation, as a result of which the courts in Crimea cannot be considered as established in accordance with the law, under Article 6;
- Forced change of Ukrainian citizenship to Russian citizenship under Article 8 of the Convention;
- Systematic mass searches in violation of Article 8;
- Forced transfer of convicts to the territory of the Russian Federation in violation of Article 8;
- Attacks and harassment of religious leaders who do not belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, and the seizure and confiscation of property in this regard, in violation of Article 9;
- The closure of non-Russian media outlets, including Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar TV stations, and the persistent harassment and attacks on journalists, in violation of Article 10;
- Prohibition of peaceful assemblies and protests and attacks and persecution of their organisers in violation of Article 11 of the Convention;
- Expropriation of private property in violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1;
- Closure of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar classes in violation of Article 2 of Protocol No. 1;
Violation of the right to freedom of movement between the occupied territory of Crimea and mainland Ukraine;
Discrimination against Crimean Tatars;
Violation of the rights of political prisoners, the impossibility of their return to Ukraine and their ill-treatment in the occupied Crimea and the territory of the Russian Federation.
"In January 2021, with the decision on admissibility in the Crimean case, we (the ECHR, which issued the judgment, and the Government of Ukraine, which constantly proved all the facts of the seizure of Crimea and human rights violations) demolished Russia's version of the "expression of will" and "legal accession of Crimea to the Russian Federation".
Today, on 25 June 2024, the decision essentially nullifies Russia's decades-long claims that human rights are respected in Crimea!" - said Sokorenko.
She stressed that this decision is the first in which an international court has recognised Russia as responsible for a policy of large-scale and systematic violations of various human rights and freedoms in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.
"This decision is unique - for the first time in its practice, the ECHR has recognised a number of conclusions and violations under the Convention (application of Russian legislation, illegal courts, forced change of citizenship)... This is an important stage and result on the way to bringing the aggressor to international legal responsibility!" - the Commissioner summed up.
As a reminder, on 13 December 2023, the European Court of Human Rights began hearings in the interstate case of Ukraine against Russia, in which Kyiv accuses Moscow of "administrative practice" of systematic violations of the European Convention on Human Rights in the annexed Crimea since February 2014.
