Russia is responsible for extensive human rights abuses in Ukraine

On July 9, 2025, in the case of Ukraine and the Netherlands against RussiaThe Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECTHR) held Russia responsible for widespread and condemned abuses of human rights resulting from the conflict in Ukraine since 2014, violate the European Convention on Human Rights (Echr). The decision follows an application made by Ukraine and the Netherlands (state parties of the contract) against Russia (another state party in the contract at all relevant times), a transnational application was called. ECTHR is an international court created in 1959 to rule on individual or state applications related to violations of civil and political rights laid down in the European Convention.

The case Ukraine and the Netherlands against Russia Concerns about the conflict that began in eastern Ukraine in 2014 after the occupation of Donetsk and Luansk areas by the pre-Russian armed groups and escalated after Russia’s complete invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The court found that Russia was responsible for repeated violations of human rights for over eight years. This included inquisitive military attacks. Summary executions. torture, including rape as a war weapon. illegal and arbitrary deductions; intimidation and prosecution of journalists and religious groups; looting and destroying private property; and organized removal of children in Russia and their adoption there. The court also found that Russia was responsible for violating the right to life, breaking the MH17 flight and had added to the deep hassle of relatives of the victims of the victims of the crash, by being non -cooperative and obstructive in the context of international efforts.

In his ruling, the court stressed that “the events in Ukraine are unprecedented in the history of the Council of Europe. The nature and scale of violence as well as the ominous statements about the Ukrainian state affair, its independence and its right to have a threat to the peaceful coexistence that Europe has long been considered for granted. “He added that” this dangerous rhetoric has also expanded to include other Member States of the Council of Europe, including Poland, Moldova and the Baltic countries. These actions seek to undermine the fabric of the Republic itself in which the Council of Europe and its Member States are established by the destruction of individual freedoms, the suppression of civil liberties and their apparent violation of the rule of law. In none of the conflicts previously before the court, there was such an almost universal condemnation of the “blatant” violation by the state of the respondent about the foundations of the International Legal Order founded after World War II. “

In relation to the use of sexual violence, the court found that there are signs of broad and systematic use of sexual violence by armed separatists and Russian troops, with regard to men and women, the elderly and young people (with documented victims ranging from 80). The court stressed that “the evidence shows that the extreme violence of the circumstances under which women were rape or sexually attacked and the intention to terrorize, humiliate and abolish them. [Geneva Convention]

Iv. “He added that” in addition to the impact on immediate victims, the rape of women and girls in the context of an armed conflict has also been described as a means of attacker to symbolically and naturally humiliatingly defeated men. The rape or threat of rape is also used to promote communities from territories or to increase terrorism during attacks. The evidence also confirms the horrible sexual violence often committed by male prisoners. Sexual abuse, torture and amputation of male prisoners are often performed to attack and destroy the sense of masculinity or male age. The abuse and torture of women’s family members in front of him is used to convey the message that he failed in his role as a patron. These forms of humiliation and violence receive strong political and symbolic concepts. “The court concluded that” sexual violence and rape were developed in Ukraine after the February 2022 invasion as part of a military strategy for discouragement, humble and disintegration of its moral Ukrainian population, as a community and as a community and as a community. Physical, emotional and psychological suffering.

In relation to the kidnapping of children, the court concluded that, among other things, it was “satisfied that the removal of children from their homes, their separation from their parents and carers, their transfer to Russia and the absence of any steps from the Russian authorities to secure their residents or to ensure that their adopt. Guaranteed in accordance with Article 8 of the Convention. ”

To reach the conclusions, the Court took into account reports of trusted bodies, such as the UN Investigations Committee or the High Commissioner’s Office of Human Rights. The findings of the Court, in addition to the various sources mentioned throughout the area, should help eliminate Russia’s strong propaganda engine that are trying to change the narrative around the war. As the evidence of crimes committed by Russia are conducted in a legal test, in so many international, regional and domestic courts, Russia’s propaganda can only fail.