
UHHRU took part in preparations of the key concerns and recommendations on fundamental rights in Ukraine
Following the Euromaidan Revolution in 2013, Ukraine has undertaken widespread reforms in the areas of...
19 February 2019
14.08.2018
This country’s official report was accompanied by an alternative one, co-authored by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Regional Center for Human Rights, Media Initiative for Human Rights and individual experts, as regard the RF compliance with the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in the territory of occupied Crimea.
Serving as an additional source of reliable information (which allows cross-check and verification of data submitted by the national government), this “shadow” report brought to light the systematic practice of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment that has been continuously applied by Kremlin since 2014 as an integral component of its overall repressive policy towards Crimean residents.
Almost all our findings and recommendations are considered by the CAT that calls Russia to put an end to the practice of torture in Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, ensure the prosecution and punishment of the perpetrators, provide victims with redress and to ensure unimpeded access to peninsular by the international human rights monitoring mechanisms.
UHHRU would like propose to your attention an extract from the Concluding observations that relates to Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, while the full text is available here.
Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of the Russian Federation
Crimea and the city of Sevastopol
The Committee expresses its concern about:
(a) Persistent reports of serious human rights violations, including abductions, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture, ill-treatment and extrajudicial killings, particularly of the Crimean Tatars, pro-Ukraine activists and affiliates of the Mejlis, by members of the Federal Security Service and the Crimean self-defence;
(b) Information that since 2014, torture has been routinely used by the authorities to obtain false confession for politically motivated prosecutions, including in the case of Oleg Sentsov, a Ukraine filmmaker, who was allegedly tortured in Crimea;
(c) Reports that out of 106 allegations of torture by the public officials from February 2014 to June 2018, not a single case was effectively investigated;
(d) Deplorable conditions of detention, in particular inadequate access to medical care which resulted in numerous deaths in custody;
(e) Limited access to detention facilities by an independent monitoring mechanism, civil society and lawyers of detainees; (f) Denial of access to Crimea by the international human rights monitoring mechanisms, particularly the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) (arts. 2, 4, 11, 12 and 16).
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