According to Marharyta Sokorenko, Ukraine’s representative at the ECHR, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has joined two cases in which the Russian Federation is the defendant into one proceeding.
“The ECHL combined the cases of Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia, in which the court had already recognized the Russian occupation of eastern Ukraine since 2014, and Ukraine v. Russia (X) on a full-scale invasion into one large proceeding. Now the so-called big deal in Donbass has become even bigger”,- she wrote.
This solution has several advantages:
- speeding up the consideration of the case on the full-scale invasion Ukraine v. Russia (X). The ECtHR will proceed to the stage of consideration of the case on the merits, and Ukraine has already saved at least a year or two (and in fact much more) in its study by the ECH;
- process optimization. Consolidation will provide a more efficient examination, since some aspects of the two cases are similar and complementary;
- the court’s examination of the case in a more global context. The active phase of Russian aggression against Ukraine began in 2014, and all this fits into the overall picture and paradigm of Russia’s aggressive plans;
- solution efficiency. Combining the two cases will help to get a more complete solution, since one case will consider various aspects of human rights violations committed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine since 2014, and some are developing further;
- case weight gain. Unification can provide Ukraine with more support and a platform to advance its cause before the global community;
- strengthening of international law. Consider Russia’s undermining the principles of peaceful coexistence and ensuring human rights as such.