Europe Court condemns Russia for human rights violations in Crimea
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has condemned Russia for human rights violations in Crimea following the annexation of the Black Sea peninsula. This was decided by the judges in Strasbourg on Tuesday, upholding a complaint by Ukraine.
25.06.2024, 13:31
SDA
The impact of the decision is likely to be limited: Russia does not recognize the Court's rulings. The country was excluded from the Council of Europe due to its ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine since February 2022.
As a result, it is no longer a member of the European Convention on Human Rights, which the Court ensures is observed. However, the Court can continue to rule on incidents that occurred up to six months after the exclusion. The Council of Europe, the Convention on Human Rights and the Court of Justice are independent of the EU.
Russia annexed the Ukrainian Crimea in 2014 in violation of international law and has occupied the peninsula ever since. The decision now pending is not about the annexation itself, but about the behavior of Russian troops afterwards. Ukraine complained about abductions, unlawful detentions, ill-treatment and the suppression of the Ukrainian media and the Ukrainian language in schools, among other things. In addition, Moscow had persecuted pro-Ukrainian activists not only in Crimea, but throughout Ukraine and Russia.
The judges largely agreed with this. They unanimously found that Russia had violated the right to life, the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment and freedom of expression in Crimea, among other things. There was sufficient evidence that there was a pattern behind this and that the incidents in Crimea had been tolerated by the Russian authorities.
