Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“The Russian Federation’s senseless war on Ukraine continues to generate severe and far-reaching violations of human rights,” said UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Wednesday, during a UN Human Rights Council Interactive Dialogue on Ukraine.
“Last Friday, on the 500th day of this conflict, our Human Rights Monitoring Mission outlined the horrendous civilian cost of the war in Ukraine. More than 9,000 civilians, including over 500 children, have been killed since the war began on 24 February of last year. The real figures are likely to be much higher,” Türk added.
The report (A/HRC/53/CRP.3) presented to the Human Rights Council, examines the situation of civilians who have been detained in the context of the conflict. Its sources include 274 site visits by the Office’s staff, including 70 visits to official detention facilities, and interviews with 1,136 people. The High Commissioner wished to underline that the monitoring work of UN Human Rights Office – which is core to their mandate - follows the highest standards of impartiality, professionalism, objectivity and non-selectivity. These principles have guided the collection of the data set out in this report, as in all other reports produced by the UN Human Rights Office.
“It is through rigour and painstaking care in the collection of data and analysis of evidence that we make the strongest case for truth, and for accountability. In the report before you, we have documented the arbitrary detention of more than 900 individual civilians, including eight children, between 24 February 2022 and 23 May 2023,” the High Commissioner said.
“The Russian Federation gave no access to places of detention, which leads inevitably to undercounting. Even so, we were able to interview 178 detainees who had been held by the Russian Federation, after their release. In total, 864 of the cases that we documented were perpetrated by the Russian Federation. Many of them were incommunicado detentions, tantamount to enforced disappearances,” he stated.
The report also documented the summary execution of 77 civilians while they were arbitrarily detained by the Russian Federation. Over 90 per cent of detainees held by the Russian Federation that the UN Human rights office was able to interview said they had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment -- including sexual violence, in some cases -- by Russian security personnel.
The civilians detained by the Russian Federation that were also interviewed included local public officials, humanitarian volunteers, former soldiers, perceived political opponents, priests and teachers. In 26 per cent of cases, they were transferred to other locations in occupied Ukraine or the Russian Federation, without information provided to their families. The report also documented several cases that suggest detained civilians have been used by Russian armed forces as “human shields” in order to render certain areas immune from military attacks.
“These findings are shocking. They call for concrete measures by the Russian Federation to instruct and ensure their Russian personnel comply with international human rights and humanitarian law,” Türk said.
The Secretary-General’s report A/HRC/53/64 outlines human rights violations in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as Russian-occupied areas of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
From 1 July to 31 December 2022, the UN Human Rights Office has documented 60 arbitrary arrests in these areas by Russian security personnel, as well as enforced disappearances and torture.
Regarding forced conscription, Russian officials have announced that 2,500 men from Crimea were conscripted during the reporting period, and the Office has documented 112 criminal prosecutions for so-called draft evasion in 2022.
The High Commissioner was also deeply concerned about population transfers of civilians. During the reporting period, the UN Human Rights Office collected information about 23 residents who were arrested by Russian security forces and transferred across the Administrative Boundary Line to Crimea, reportedly handcuffed and blindfolded. In parallel, the Russian authorities have continued transferring Ukrainian citizens whom they consider “foreigners” out of Crimea.
ENDS
For more information and media requests, please contact:
Ravina Shamdasani - + 41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org or
Liz Throssell + 41 22 917 9296 / elizabeth.throssell@un.org or
Jeremy Laurence + +41 22 917 9383 / jeremy.laurence@un.org or
Marta Hurtado - + 41 22 917 9466 / marta.hurtadogomez@un.org
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