CTRC sends report to UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances

‘During the occupation of Crimea, according to the monitoring data of the Crimean Tatar Resource Centre, 24 people became victims of enforced disappearances, whose fate is still unknown, 18 of them are representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. Only 9 people out of the 24 disappeared were declared wanted by the occupation authorities. Another 8 people were forcibly abducted, but thanks to activists they were found. Another 6 people who were forcibly abducted were found dead,’ – the report said.

The experts stressed that despite the fact that the Russian Federation has not ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, Ukrainian citizens, including those who remain in the occupied territories, enjoy its protection, as Ukraine ratified the Convention by the decision of the Verkhovna Rada 525-VIII of 17 June 2015, which has since become part of the national legislation of Ukraine.

In addition, as the experts note, the practice of intimidation and enforced disappearances of active pro-Ukrainian citizens and representatives of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine (Crimean Tatars and Karaites) was extended by the Russian Federation to the newly occupied territories after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In particular, in the occupied territories of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, the RRC recorded at least 80 cases of enforced disappearances of civilians.

‘People forcibly abducted in the Russia-occupied Ukrainian territories are held in inhumane conditions, tortured and subjected to psychological violence. According to the CTRC, the occupiers constantly conduct ‘preventive talks’, as was the case, in particular, with the basement of College No. 17 in Genichesk. For this purpose, 8 torture centres have been set up in the occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions since 2022,’ – was added in the  report .