The ECtHR recognized Russiaʼs violation of human rights in Crimea

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced the decision in the first international case "Ukraine v. Russia (regarding Crimea)". The court recognized that Russia systematically violated human rights in the occupied Crimea.

This is stated in the court decision.

As the authorized representative of the Ministry of Justice in matters of the European Court of Human Rights Marharyta Sokorenko notes, the court unanimously confirmed Russiaʼs violation of a number of articles of the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights.

Russian violations include:

• the disappearance of people and the lack of their effective investigation (violation of Article 2 of the Convention);
• ill-treatment and illegal detention (Articles 2 and 5);
• illegal spread of Russian legislation, due to which Crimean courts cannot be considered legal (Article 6);
• forced change of Ukrainian citizenship to Russian (Article 8);
• systematic mass searches (Article 8);
• forced transfer of convicts to the territory of the Russian Federation (Article 8);
• attacks and persecution of religious leaders who did not belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, searches and confiscation of property (Article 9);
• closure of non-Russian media, including Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar TV stations, constant harassment and attacks on journalists (Article 10);
• prohibition of peaceful assemblies and protests, attacks and persecution of their organizers (Article 11);
• expropriation of private property (Article 1 of the First Protocol of the Convention);
• closure of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar classes (Article 2 of the First Protocol);
• violation of the right to freedom of movement between the occupied territory of Crimea and the mainland of Ukraine;
• discrimination against Crimean Tatars;
• violation of the rights of political prisoners, the impossibility of their return to Ukraine and their cruel treatment on the territory of the occupied Crimea and the Russian Federation.

Sokorenko emphasized that this decision is the first in which an international court recognized the Russian Federation as responsible for the policy of large-scale and systematic violations of various human rights and freedoms in Crimea.

• In January 2021, the European Court of Human Rights accepted the case of Ukraine against Russia regarding the occupation of Crimea and proceeded to consider the merits. At the same time, the ECtHR confirmed that Russia had "general effective control" over Crimea since February 2014, and not since the time of the so-called referendum.