ECHR finds Russia guilty of human rights violations in Crimea

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued its verdict on the merits in the first interstate case, Ukraine v. Russia (re Crimea), recognising the systemic violations of human rights committed by the Russians in occupied Crimea.

The case Ukraine v. Russia (re Crimea) dealt with Ukraine's accusations of systematic violations of the European Convention on Human Rights by the Russian Federation in Crimea since February 2014.

It also alluded to charges of systematic persecution of Ukrainians for their political positions and/or pro-Ukrainian activities (Ukrainian political prisoners), which occurred mostly in Crimea, but also in other parts of Ukraine or the Russian Federation, since the beginning of 2014.

The Ukrainian government asserts that Russia has effectively controlled the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol since 27 February 2014.

It also claims that Russia committed systematic human rights violations as part of a repressive campaign that included disappearances, illegal detentions, ill-treatment, the inability to renounce Russian citizenship, the suppression of work of Ukrainian media and the functioning of the Ukrainian language in schools, and transfers from Crimea to remote Russian prisons.

Russia decided not to comply with ECHR decisions issued after 15 March 2022. However, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe stated that according to international law, Russia is still obliged to comply with the decisions of the ECHR taken against it.

Recently, oral proceedings were held at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case Ukraine and the Netherlands against the Russian Federation. The proceedings concern Russia's violations of human rights in the occupied territory of Donbas.