The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers has urged the Russian authorities to immediately restore application of the Ukrainian law in Crimea, to cease all administrative practices found by the ECHR to be in breach of the European Human Rights Convention and to release all Ukrainian political prisoners whose human rights were restricted by these practices in Crimea, as well as to free all illegally detained Ukrainian soldiers, ethnic Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars and journalists.
The Committee of Ministers stated this in its first decision on the Ukraine v. Russia inter-state case concerning Crimea, adopted at its latest quarterly meeting to supervise the implementation of judgments from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg last week.
The Committee underlined that in 2014, Russia illegally extended the application of its law to Crimea in breach of the Convention. It strongly insisted on the need to immediately restore the application in Crimea of "the whole of the law" of Ukraine. It recalled that the illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine) by the Russian Federation constituted a violation of international law.
The judgment concerned multiple violations of the European Convention of Human Rights stemming from the Russian Federation's occupation of Crimea from 27 February 2014 to 16 September 2022 (when the Russian Federation ceased to be a party to the Convention), but also beyond that date for continued detentions. In particular, the Committee of Ministers condemned such grave and serious violations of the Convention and international humanitarian law as notably ill-treatment and torture, arbitrary and incommunicado detentions and enforced disappearances.
Despite Russia's expulsion from the Council of Europe, it remains obliged to execute judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the Committee of Ministers underlined, deeply deploring the fact that the Russian authorities have ceased all communication with the Committee.
The Committee of Ministers strongly insisted that the Russian authorities should immediately release and ensure the safe return to the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian authorities, of all Ukrainian political prisoners whose rights and freedoms were restricted in Crimea, as well as illegally detained Ukrainian soldiers, ethnic Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars and journalists.
Pending this, Russia should immediately cease all forms of torture and ill-treatment and ensure access of these prisoners to independent legal advice, medical treatment and communication with their families and the outside world, said the Committee. Russia should also allow independent international bodies to monitor their state of health and conditions of detention and submit the list of persons detained, to enable the Committee to supervise their release. In addition, all transfers of prisoners from Crimea to Russian Federation territory should also be stopped and those prisoners transferred from Crimea must be returned, the Committee of Ministers insisted.
The Committee of Ministers also urged Russia, inter alia, to immediately halt any discriminatory practices or ethnic persecution against Crimean Tatars, ensure the right to education in the Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian languages in Crimea, cease any persecution of the Ukrainian speaking children and teachers, lift the unlawful restriction of the freedom of movement between Crimea and mainland Ukraine, cease and reverse all expropriation of property and ensure the legal possibility and adequate facilities for opting-out of Russian citizenship.
The Committee further urged Russia to fully engage and cooperate with any pending international investigations, including those launched by the international jurisdictional bodies, national investigations brought under the principles of universal jurisdiction, or those pending in Ukraine, and international enquiries and investigative missions.
The Committee of Ministers invited the authorities of the 46 Council of Europe member states to explore all possible means to ensure the execution of this judgment, to ensure accountability for the serious breaches of international law established in it also referring to the principles of universal jurisdiction.
