Landmark European Ruling Over Crimea Offers Fresh Hope
Decision by top European court provides basis for resolving hundreds of individual Ukrainian cases.
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Ukrainian National Sentenced for Collaboration
A pensioner helped the occupying forces identify Ukrainian men during the occupation of his village in the summer of 2022.
Tuesday, 23 Jul ‘24
This week’s overview of key events and links to essential reading.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) June ruling that Russia has systematically violated human rights in occupied Crimea since 2014 marked the first interstate judgement against Moscow. Although Russia has not recognised the decision, Marharyta Sokorenko, ECHR commissioner at Ukraine’s justice ministry, told IWPR’s Olga Golovina that this remained a significant milestone in the fight for accountability.
Olga Golovina: Why do you think this decision was made only now and what was the path to its adoption?
Marharyta Sokorenko: The ECHR differs from other international courts in that it is one of the most popular courts in Europe, as evidenced by its constant workload.
It considers two types of applications - individual and interstate - and in recent years the number of both has increased.
Interstate complaints go through several stages in the ECHR, which will include consideration of their admissibility, further consideration of the merits and the final stage - a decision on just satisfaction.
From March 13, 2014, a rapid development took place: constant additions about new facts of violations in the occupied territory of Crimea and later in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and an increase in the volume of complaints.
At the same time, the ECHR hearing itself was during the period of quarantine measures in Europe, which affected the work of the ECHR and the period of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when the ECHR decided to suspend the consideration of all cases concerning Ukraine from March to September 2022.
Our complaints were and remain to some extent unique to the ECHR – we are not complaining about individual incidents or types of violations, but about the existence of administrative practices: massive, systematic and repeated violations that are large-scale and long-lasting.
The ECHR had to analyse both the issue of its own jurisdiction in the context of the consideration of the interstate application and the issue of Russia's control over the Crimean peninsula. After that, they had to separately analyse the issue of systematic and massive violations of various rights and freedoms and all available evidence in this regard.
Ukraine collected and analysed a large number of materials of national criminal proceedings, various reports, news, testimony of witnesses and victims during the seizure of Crimea by Russia.
We have also done a tremendous job of finding, analysing and collating information from open sources to present to the ECHR specific facts and individuals involved in the seizure of the peninsula.
What key points of this decision would you single out as most significant for Ukraine?
In its decision, the ECHR found Russia responsible for violating 15 different articles of the Convention and its protocols, which provide for the protection of a wide variety of human rights and freedoms, ranging from the right to life and the prohibition of torture to the right to property and the prohibition of discrimination.
The ECHR established that Russia does not simply violate certain individual human rights, but actually carries out illegal interference in a significant number of aspects of human life for all persons who are in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea.
The ECHR recognszed that Russia violated the rules of international humanitarian law when it replaced Ukrainian legislation with Russian legislation in the occupied territory of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. The entire "judicial system" and the decisions made by such courts are not legal for the purposes of consideration of cases by the ECHR.
How will this decision affect the rights and interests of citizens of Ukraine in Crimea and Sevastopol? What opportunities for legal protection opens up for them after the ECHR decision?
First of all, the decision becomes an important basis for restoring the violated rights of individual citizens who suffered from Russia's actions in Crimea. It will become the basis for the resolution of many hundreds of individual cases pending at the ECHR, as a result of which the victims may receive the right to demand compensation for the violation of their rights.
For many victims of human rights violations, it is important that the truth is on their side, that their pain and suffering are not forgotten and ignored.
We understand that Russia will not voluntarily comply with the decision of the ECHR, as it has done in other interstate cases. Therefore, this is another task for Ukraine - the search for alternative mechanisms aimed at the forced recovery of assets, including for the purpose of compensating persons affected by the actions of the Russian Federation.
This decision greatly strengthens Ukraine's position and provides legal arguments in working with partners.
The conclusions of the ECHR can be used to increase diplomatic pressure on Russia and implementing or maintaining sanctions. Also, the conclusions regarding the state of human rights in Crimea since the beginning of the occupation will be a strong argument in Ukraine's efforts to regain control over the peninsula.
What is the next step for Ukraine in defending the rights and freedoms of citizens in the occupied territories?
If we are talking about this Crimean case, then there is one more stage of work left for us - providing Ukraine's position regarding just satisfaction. In simple words, about compensation for damage caused by violations, which the ECHR confirmed in the decision of June 25, 2024.
But this is not the only interstate lawsuit against Russia in the ECHR. There are three others. This year, we have been active in another major lawsuit, Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia, which concerns human rights violations in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions since the spring of 2014 and during the full-scale invasion from February 24, 2022. The downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 is also being considered in this case, so the Kingdom of the Netherlands acts together with us as a co-applicant. We also have an unprecedented number of European states that have joined as third parties in support of Ukraine, that is 26 countries.
There are two other lawsuits we are working on. One, Ukraine v Russia (VIII) regarding the seizure of Ukrainian Navy ships and their crews in the Kerch Strait in November 2018. Another case - Ukraine v Russia (IH), regarding the policy of Russia-sanctioned extrajudicial executions of its opponents on the territory of the member states of the Council of Europe - is still awaiting consideration. Several countries have joined us in this matter.
Another no less important area of work is the individual lawsuits of our citizens regarding Russia's violations of their rights in the occupied territories. According to our information, the ECHR is considering about 7,400 individual applications regarding the events in Crimea, in the east of Ukraine and during the full-scale invasion of Russia into the territory of Ukraine. In these cases, Ukraine also provides a position on Russia's violations of citizens' rights.
Are further submissions to the ECHR regarding other violations of human rights in the occupied territories of Ukraine planned?
The ECHR no longer has jurisdiction to consider complaints about Russia's violation of human rights after September 16, 2022. This is a consequence of the fact that in March 2022 the Council of Europe expelled the Russian Federation from its membership due to a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
However, the ECHR will continue to consider cases with complaints about violations of human rights committed by the Russian Federation until September 16, 2022.
The very expulsion of the Russian Federation from the Council of Europe in no way saves Russia from responsibility for the violations committed, because the ECHR retains the competence to consider applications against the Russian Federation regarding its actions or inactions that may constitute a violation of the Convention, provided that they occurred before September 16, 2022. As of September 16, 2022, more than 17,450 applications against the Russian Federation were pending at the ECHR.
But the ECHR is not the only international court, we also have the International Criminal Court and the process of creating a special tribunal for the crime of aggression.
