Human rights violations in Russian-occupied Crimea continue, with no tangible improvements seen over the past 10 months, a report by the UN Human Rights Office published today says.
The report, which covers the period from 13 September 2017 to 30 June 2018, says that the Russian Federation continued to disregard its international obligations as an occupying power and failed to adequately guarantee and protect a wide range of human rights in Crimea.
The shrinking of civic space in Crimea intensified an atmosphere of fear, leaving little room for criticism or dissent. In one case, a Crimean woman was given a suspended prison sentence for sharing a Facebook post that contained criticism of the Russian Federation, its army and historical figures. The report describes five cases where criminal proceedings were used to penalize political dissent and seemed designed to serve as a warning to others.
Due process and fair trial rights of 94 individuals were violated by state agents of the Russian Federation in Crimea, including judges, prosecutors, investigators, the Federal Security Service (“FSB”) and police, the report says. Further, in none of the 42 cases of enforced disappearances documented since March 2014, have perpetrators been held responsible. General lack of accountability for human rights violations has led to a climate of impunity.
At least three Crimean men – Oleh Sentsov, Volodymyr Balukh and Emir-Usein Kuku – went on hunger strike in protest against what they believe to be fabricated and politically motivated prosecutions. The report raises concerns about their health and, more broadly, about degrading conditions for other detainees that may amount to ill-treatment.
In Simferopol pre-trial detention centre, cells are so overcrowded that detainees have to sleep in shifts. At times, detainees have been denied food, water, or access to medical care before being taken to court hearings, the report says. It highlights that in Crimea “state agents used prohibited practices, notably torture by electrocution and sexual violence, against people in detention or in the time between their de facto deprivation of liberty and formal placement in detention”.
Transfer of detainees from Crimea to the Russian Federation to stand trial and/or to serve their sentence continued, in violation of international humanitarian law. The UN Human Rights Office documented instances where transferred detainees faced torture and ill-treatment in Russian Federation facilities.
In violation of international humanitarian law, an estimated 12,000 men from Crimea have been conscripted into the Russian Federation army since 2015, the report notes. The enlistment campaign has become more aggressive each year, beginning with 500 men in 2015 and reaching a new peak in spring this year when 2,800 Crimean residents were conscripted. Evading the draft is a criminal offence under Russian Federation legislation imposed in Crimea. The report refers to at least nine criminal cases when men were convicted in court and given heavy fines for draft evasion.
The report details a three-fold increase in the number of documented house searches and FSB raids on private property in Crimea – 38 in the first six months of 2018 against 14 in the same period in 2017. Of these, nearly 80 per cent targeted Crimean Tatars. In addition, Crimean Tatars continue to be deprived of their representative institution, the Mejlis, which remains banned in Crimea in violation of an Order by the International Court of Justice.
The report reiterates the continuing obligation of Ukraine to use all legal and diplomatic means available to ensure respect for human rights in relation to the population of Crimea. People originating from Crimea, including those displaced, had limited access to various forms of documentation and services in mainland Ukraine, in particular, banking and civil registration services. “This is rooted in discriminatory Ukrainian legal provisions, the arbitrary application of legislation and, occasionally, prejudiced attitudes towards persons originating from Crimea,” the report says.
The report ends with a set of recommendations to the Russian Federation, as the occupying power in Crimea, to the Government of Ukraine and to the international community.
BACKGROUND:
This report was prepared in accordance with UN General Assembly resolution 68/262, reaffirming the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and General Assembly resolutions 71/205 and 72/190, recognizing Crimea as a territory of Ukraine temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation.
The report is based on nearly 200 interviews, monitoring and fact-finding missions conducted from mainland Ukraine, as the Russian Federation continued to deny access to Crimea, in contradiction to General Assembly resolutions that reaffirm the territorial integrity of Ukraine and recognize the Russian Federation as an occupying power.
To read the full report in English, please visit: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/CrimeaThematicReport10Sept2018_EN.pdf