ECHR rejects claims against Ukraine regarding investigation into persecution of activists in Crimea
The European Court of Human Rights has rejected the complaint of two citizens regarding the claims against Ukraine regarding the lack of an effective investigation into the violation of their rights in the occupied Crimea. At the same time, the court confirmed the violation by Russia. This is mentioned in the ECHR decision in the case “Shukurdzhiev and Kuzmin v. Russia and Ukraine”.
The ECHR announced a decision in a case related to the persecution of participants in the Taras Shevchenko birthday rally in occupied Crimea.
The court found that the events referred to in the complaint can be considered, since they occurred before Russia’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe on September 16, 2022. The non-participation of the Russian side in the process did not become an obstacle to consideration.
The ECHR declared the complaint against Russia regarding the violation of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights admissible and found that the Russian Federation had violated this article in respect of both applicants.
At the same time, the court declared the complaints against Ukraine, in which the applicants claimed that it had failed to conduct an effective investigation into their persecution by the occupation administration, inadmissible. In this matter, the ECHR confirmed that Ukraine retains the so-called positive obligations under the ECHR, but they are limited, since it concerns a territory that the state does not control. Therefore, Ukraine can only take those steps that are realistically possible.
The court also noted that the ARC Prosecutor’s Office, as a Ukrainian body, on its own initiative began an investigation into these facts based on information from open sources. The available materials do not indicate that Ukraine failed to act within the scope of the actions it could have taken.
Due to the established violation by the Russian Federation, Russia was ordered to pay each of the applicants 7,500 euros in moral compensation, as well as 3,000 euros to both applicants together for legal costs.
The Commissioner of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine for the ECHR, Margarita Sokorenko, called this decision another precedent that confirms the systemic nature of Russia’s human rights violations in the occupied Crimea and its responsibility for this.
“The ECHR confirmed that the own initiative of state bodies is important for protecting the rights of Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied territories, and is taken into account by the Court for the purposes of confirming “The fulfillment of positive obligations is an important argument and factor for our law enforcement system as a whole.”
This is also another confirmation that the standard of positive obligations in conditions of occupation, in particular in the situation of Ukraine, must be realistic and take into account objective limitations associated with the lack of control over the territory and access of state representatives to this territory and the people who are there,” Sokorenko noted.
