In the beginning of 2025, working with permanent cooperation with UN bodies and agencies, our Association sent submission to UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, for Group’s research on the use of universal criminal jurisdiction in cases of enforced disappearance
ARC’s submission, prepared by Professor Borys Babin and other experts and published at the UN web-sources now, reminded, that since the outbreak of the Russian aggression in 2014 and especially after the full-scale invasion in 2022, the practice of enforced disappearances has become one of the most common methods of intimidation of citizens in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
Association’s submission stressed that the exact number of people who have disappeared since the beginning of the occupation in the Crimea has not yet been established, but we can talk about 60 people. The largest wave of disappearances occurred in the first month of the occupation of Crimea when about 20 cases were recorded.
ARC’s submission added that the European Court on Human Rights established in its Decision, dated June 25, 2024 on applications of Ukraine against Russia regarding Crimea, the existence of Russia’s systemic practice regarding human rights violations at peninsula, including enforced disappearances.
Our submission emphasized that the relevant procedural practice of European countries becomes a powerful tool both for the development of the phenomenon of universal jurisdiction at the global level and for ensuring justice in the punishment of Russian criminals, including enforced disappearances, committed in the occupied Crimea and other Ukrainian territories.
Additional supranational mechanisms should be implemented to eliminate the risks of duplication of cases, ARC’s submission added. Also we stressed on the importance of counter-intelligence protection of the court and trial participants against the aggressor’s encroachments, on additional guarantees to victims who received procedural status, on exchange of evidence base and assistance in carrying out examinations.
The format of such interstate cooperation should be embodied in the system of bilateral agreements and within the framework of collective mechanisms, primarily under the auspices of the Council of Europe, ARC’s submission summarised.
Let us recall that on February 24, this UN Working Group joined the latest statement by UN expert structures condemning Russian aggression and other international crimes committed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine.
