On June 29 ARC experts took an active participation at the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting III “Preventing Torture and Ill-Treatment: Strengthening Co-operation and Implementation”, held in Vienna.
On the Meeting’s Session, devoted to safeguards and accountability in criminal justice procedures experts reminded that the right not to be tortured, including the right to freedom from torture during the procedural activities, is totally violated in the Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine, including Crimea.
Experts reminded on the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in interstate cases of Ukraine and the Netherlands against Russia, adopted in June 2024 regarding Crimea, and on July 2025 regarding the East of Ukraine.
Both those judgments established that tortures are not just an often human rights violation in the Russia-occupied territories, but that such tortures are part of the systematic Russian governing policy and administrative practice, as in the area of so-called criminal justice, so in conditions of extrajudicial repressions.
At the same time, the European Court stressed in those judgments that all the so-called judicial systems, established by Russian forces in occupied territories, violate per se the international human rights standards.
So, experts added, the procedural part of freedom from torture is not available in the Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine, as there are no authorized bodies that have the competence, will, and practical possibilities to investigate tortures committed by Russian military and punitive structures in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
The level of practical effectiveness of Ukrainian legal enforcement activities on those issues, usually without access to victims, witnesses, or defendants and without the possibility of forensic steps, is minimal, and its compliance with conventional standards is still a subject of expert discussions, experts added.
Also ARC experts pointed on the situatuion with total practic of tortures against Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian places of non-freedom, including the tortures during the illegal criminal proceedings against such prisoners of war as alleged terrorists or war criminals.
Such tortures are the gross violation of the Geneva Conventions, and at the same time, they are the war crime not regarding the Rome Statute only, but also they are criminalized by common international law.
So, experts added, we fully support the research, findings, and proposals of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism on those aspects, including the Report on violations of international law, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, related to the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russia, published in September 2025.
ARC experts called on all OSCE participating states to support the investigation of the relevant international crimes, including the relevant forensic and other technical aid, and to start relevant proceedings in their own national justice systems regarding the universal jurisdiction principle in cases where the defendants, victims, or witnesses are under their control.
Also, as it is well-known, Russia rejects all demands regarding the determining of the protecting power, contrary to the Geneva Convention demands. Absence of the protecting power simplifies for Russia its total administrative practice of tortures on the occupied territories and against the prisoners of war.
So ARC expert Olesya Tsybulko called on all OSCE participating states and bodies to apply pressure on Russia for the protecting power’s determination and to support relevant negotiations if they will start as the first and inevitable step of any further regulation of relevant conflict issues.
