Human rights

173 complaints
to the ECtHR

76 received
communications from the ECtHR

13 submissions
to the ICC

37 complaints
to the UN Human Rights Council

Since 2014, the Regional Center for Human Rights has been actively working to bring to justice those who committed international crimes during the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict.

Our experts and lawyers have already submitted 13 Submissions to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to initiate an investigation into the crimes of Russian officials. Among the latter:

1. Submission to the ICC regarding the responsibility of officials of the Russian Federation for the genocide in Ukraine, in particular, for the forcible transfer of children from one group to another

In 2022, RCHR and the Lemkin Institute for the Prevention of Genocide (USA) filed a joint report with a request to investigate the Russian Federation’s commission of the crime of genocide. This Submission results from extensive research and evidence gathering between February 24 and September 30, 2022. The Submission details the evidence of the genocide committed by Maria Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner of the President of the Russian Federation for Children’s Rights, against Ukrainian children and the Ukrainian nation.

Under the conditions of Russian occupation, children became victims of illegal adoption by Russian citizens. Maria Lvova-Belova has always been actively engaged and continues to be engaged in the placement of Ukrainian children in Russian families. Vladimir Putin himself supports her work. These actions constitute the crime of genocide against the Ukrainian nation to destroy it partially.

2. Submission to the ICC regarding war crimes against objects of cultural heritage in the temporarily occupied territory of the Crimean Peninsula

Experts from Regional Center for Human Rights in cooperation with the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, colleagues from “Euromaidan-Crimea” and the Ukrainian Association of International Law collected a massive array of evidence of the appropriation and destruction of cultural heritage in the occupied Crimea. In particular, the document contains evidence of the destruction or appropriation of the following objects:

Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora
Historical surroundings of Crimean Khans’ capital in Bakhchysarai and Chufut Kale
Crimean Astrophysical Observatory
Tower of Constantine and Dock Tower in the city of Feodosia
Church of St. John the Baptist in Kerch

Submission details the forms of crimes committed by the Occupying Power: illegal distribution of cultural objects, criminal negligence in the process of so-called “restoration” of cultural objects, conducting illegal archaeological excavations, in particular, excavation of burial sites and mounds, their destruction and looting, as well as the transfer of cultural values from the temporarily occupied territory. A significant number of objects were also destroyed during the construction of the Tavrida highway and the Crimean bridge.

3. Submission to the ICC regarding the responsibility of officials of the Russian Federation for the crime of illegal, arbitrary, and large-scale destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity

In 2020, RCHR and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea submitted a Submission to the ICC on illegal appropriation of the property in the occupied territory. This illegal process takes place with a court procedure, as a result of which plots of land are confiscated without any compensation by the decision of the local occupation courts created by the Russian Federation.

As the main argument when addressing the court, the representatives of the occupation authorities refer to the “illegality of the transfer of land plots into ownership” by the state bodies of Ukraine. Using such an argument by the Occupying Power violates the basic principles of international law, particularly regarding the sovereign equality of states, namely, the impossibility of one State interpreting the legislation of another State.

4. Submission to the ICC regarding the responsibility of officials of the Russian Federation for the crime of forced displacement as a result of the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol

At the end of December 2019, the Regional Center for Human Rights, together with the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, sent a message to the ICC, where they justified Russia’s responsibility for generating flows of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and changing the demographic situation in Crimea. In particular, it is the responsibility of representatives of the Russian authorities to implement the «integration» policy and create an atmosphere of fear, which forces the pro-Ukrainian population of Crimea to leave the peninsula and replenish the category of internally displaced persons of Ukraine. During the work on the report, more than 1,000 protocols of interrogations of IDPs recorded by law enforcement officers over three years were analyzed.

Only during the «active» phase of the occupation can one single out a dozen reasons that pushed people to move. Among them are torture and abduction of activists and organizers of peaceful assemblies, illegal searches, detentions, and interrogations, which the occupation authorities call «preventive conversations».