In August, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the United States’ Department of State published the Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2024, devoted to violations of human rights in the Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine, including Crimea.
The Report stressed that “impunity for Russia’s forces’ past killings in Crimea remained a serious problem” and that occupation “authorities” “failed to take adequate steps to prosecute or punish officials who committed abuses”, and that such “authorities” had not prosecuted anyone in relation to the enforced disappearances from Crimea since 2014.
The Report added that Russia also armed, trained, and led proxy forces composed of mobilized inhabitants of territories under its occupation, including parts of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts and Crimea; that is the war crimes.
The Report pointed out that Russia’s forces, specifically involved in torture and extrajudicial killings of POWs and civilian detainees, sexual violence, unlawful transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children, indiscriminate attacks and attacks on civilian objects, and the use of weapons with high explosive force in civilian areas.
The Report stressed that there were reports Russia’s forces relocated hundreds of thousands of civilians from Russia-occupied areas to Russia, and that agressor’s structures also applied an “administrative article” outlawing “public actions aimed at discrediting the Russian army” to prosecute those expressing dissent with actions taken by Crimean occupation “authorities”.
The Report added that illegal application on Russian laws in Crimea “further deprived residents of the ability to exercise freedom of expression, by preventing them from publicly criticizing and disseminating information concerning reportedly unlawful actions of FSB officers and alleged violations or abuses of human rights”.
The Report added that occupation “authorities” continued to ban the display of Ukrainian or Crimean Tatar symbols as “extremist,” with examples of detention of Serhii Akinzhela for shouting “glory to Ukraine,” brothers Ali and Seit-Khalil Appazov for posting pro-Ukrainian images in a social network, and Yevhen Lebidko for listening to a Ukrainian song and shouting “glory to Ukraine” from his balcony.
The Report added that till November of 2024 Russian “authorities” at occupied Crimea initiated as minimum 1,093 “cases” on the alleged “discrediting the Russian armed forces” and “detained and prosecuted individuals seeking to film raids on homes or court proceedings”.
The occupation “authorities” banned most Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar-language broadcasts, replacing the content with programming from Russia, Report added, with the example of detentions Suleyman Yusupov for protesting against blocking access to YouTube.
The Report added that occupation “authorities” imposed illegally the Russian labor laws and regulations on Crimean workers, limited worker rights, and created barriers to the exercise of freedom of association, collective bargaining, and the ability to strike, and “nationalized” illegally property owned by Ukrainian labor unions in Crimea. Ukrainians who did not accept “Russian passports” faced job discrimination in all sectors of the economy, Report added.
The Report stressed that Russia’s forces focused the repressions on Crimean Tatars and raided homes of members of Jehovah’s Witnesses, illegally applying its antiterrorism and antiextremism legislation in occupied Ukraine, particularly against Crimean Tatars, human rights activists, journalists, and religious figures, to suppress political opposition.
The Report added that Russia’s occupation “authorities” particularly subjected Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians to physical abuse and that such “authorities’” restrictions on human rights groups limited the ability to properly monitor antisemitic acts in the Crimea. Report reflected the UN documents on human rights violations in the Crimea. Let us remind, that our Association cooperates tightly with UN bodies and agencies for such documents’ preparations.
