On Monday 8 December, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe declared that “international cooperation is essential to secure the implementation of this historic judgment”, on the occasion of the publication of a Decision on the interstate case of Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia sanctioned by a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in July 2025 (see EUROPE 13683/34).
This judgment - which has remained a dead letter in Moscow - condemns Russia for numerous serious human rights violations committed in Ukraine since 2014, including the destruction of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which caused the death of 239 people in March 2014.
“The nature and scale of Russia’s violence in Ukraine are unprecedented in the history of the Council of Europe”, emphasises the Committee of Ministers, pointing out that the illegal military attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, the behaviour of Russian agents in the occupied territories and the abduction and transfer to Russia of Ukrainian children are also covered by the judgment.
The Committee of Ministers therefore invites the member states of the Council of Europe to “explore all possible means to ensure execution of this judgment in order to ensure accountability for all of the serious breaches of international law established in it”.
It also announces that the Council of Europe will bring the matter to the attention of other international bodies and organisations, in particular the United Nations, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union.
“This decision from the Committee of Ministers is a significant step towards our collective goal, namely holding Russia accountable for its war of aggression against Ukraine”, said the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset.
Although Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe in March 2022, the date on which it denounced the European Convention on Human Rights, it remains bound by international law to comply with the Court’s judgments relating to violations committed while it was still a member.
At present, 2,996 judgements against the Russian Federation have yet to be enforced. The amount of compensation due, including interest, is more than €163 million in interstate cases and more than €2.9 billion in individual cases. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)