At 12 December 2023 UN OHCHR published new report on the human rights situation in Ukraine for period from 1 August to 30 November 2023 based on the work of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. Our Assosiation’s expert Prof. Borys Babin sent in November full report to this UN Mission describing all ARC’s communication to OHCHR bodies, devoted to aggressor’s violation of human rights
New UN Report points that arbitrary detention continued in Crimea, which has been occupied since 2014. Report reminds that international humanitarian law prohibits individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power or any third country unless the safety of the population or imperative military reasons demand evacuation.
In the reporting period, OHCHR documented the return of two children from Russian to Ukraine; both returns showed the considerable challenges involved in bringing children back. In one case, a woman learned from social media that her 8-year-old grandson had been transferred first to Crimea and then later to an institution in Russia. After she “contacted the Russian authorities”, her grandson was transferred yet again to the occupied territory of Ukraine without her being informed. When she went to collect him in occupied territory, the aggressor’s “authorities” refused to let her leave with the child, stating that as a Ukrainian citizen she “could not take custody” of her grandson who had been “given Russian citizenship”.
Report demands from Russia to cease immediately the targeting of civilian infrastructure, including facilities related to grain production and export; to immediately cease the practice of arbitrary detention and torture of civilians, including sexual violence; to provide independent and impartial monitors full access to places of internment for Ukrainian prisoners of war; cease the prosecution of prisoners for acts which amount to mere participation in hostilities; respect the right of Ukrainian prisoners to communicate with their families; release Ukrainian retained permanent medical personnel if they are not providing medical care to prisoners.
Report demands from Russia to respect in full applicable international humanitarian law in the territory under its occupation, including by respecting Ukrainian laws and ending the “conscription” of protected persons. It also demands Russia to ensure the prompt return of all deported and transferred individuals, including children and persons with disabilities; to refrain from changing the personal status of children displaced from Ukraine, including their nationality and their legal guardians.
