In a Grand Chamber judgment published on Tuesday 25 June, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously condemned Russia for violating no fewer than 14 articles of the European Convention on Human Rights in Crimea following Russia’s annexation of this Ukrainian territory in 2014.
This final ruling follows two Ukrainian applications filed in 2014 and 2018, which included in particular disappearances; ill-treatment; unlawful detention; impossibility to opt out of Russian citizenship; suppression of Ukrainian media and of the Ukrainian language in schools; pre-trial detention in overcrowded conditions; discrimination against Crimean Tatars; and, transfers from Crimea to prisons in Russia, and more.
The Court found that it had sufficient evidence to conclude “beyond reasonable doubt that the incidents had been sufficiently numerous and interconnected to amount to a pattern or system of violations” and recalled that, under international humanitarian law, Russia was obliged to continue to apply pre-existing Ukrainian law in Crimea.
Ukraine has four pending interstate cases with Russia, one of which, brought jointly with the Netherlands, concerns the destruction of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in 2014.
The hearing on this application took place last June and also concerned the two applications relating to human rights violations in Crimea which have just been heard. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)