After the annexation by Russia, Crimea has effectively become an “island of lawlessness”. Russia, as an occupying power, ignores its obligations in Crimea under international humanitarian law and brazenly violates fundamental human rights and freedoms enshrined in international human rights instruments. Moreover, Russia is preventing the access of an international human rights mission to Crimea. At the same time, Russia may use the possible visit of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović to the occupied territory to demonstrate the “Potemkin villages” on the peninsula and reduce the attention of the international community to the Crimean issue.
Violations of human rights are one of the factors that draw the attention of the international community to the Crimean issue. After the annexation, Crimea has effectively returned to an “island of lawlessness”, where the Russian occupation authorities arbitrarily deprive Ukrainian citizens of their rights enshrined in Ukrainian legislation and international law.
Large-scale human rights violations in the occupied Crimea are primarily due to the following factors.
First, Russia categorically denies its obligations as an occupying power in Crimea. The Kremlin believes that Crimea was legally annexed to Russia, and applies Russian legislation to the occupied peninsula to the same extent as to Russian administrative-territorial entities. As a result, Russia violates the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949 ( conscription of Crimean residents into the ranks of the Russian army, persecution of Crimean activists under Russian criminal law, transfer of prisoners from Crimea to Russian territory, imposition of Russian citizenship on Crimean residents, etc.).
Second, in 2014, Crimea came under the de facto control of a country that has significantly worse human rights trauma than Ukraine. without exception ignoring international humanitarian law, Russia commits large-scale violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950 and other international human rights instruments. For example, Russia is the leader among the members of the Council of Europe in the number of individual complaints (as of January 2019 – 11,745 individual complaints) filed with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Third, Russia impedes access to Crimea by international human rights missions. More than 5 years after the annexation of Crimea, Russia has never allowed the UN Human Rights Mission in Ukraine, nor the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, to enter the peninsula. Since then, representatives of the Council of Europe have visited Crimea only twice (Ukrainian activists claim that the Russian authorities organized a demonstration concert in Ukrainian in one of the Simferopol schools when the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe visited Crimea in January 2016).
Key facts of human rights violations in occupied Crimea:
92 citizens of Ukraine were imprisoned on political or religious grounds (as of August 2019). Among them, 63 were arrested or convicted in the “Hizb ut-Tahrir case”, 12 in the “Ukrainian saboteurs case”, 3 for membership in the “Noman Chelebidzhikhan” battalion. In the first half of 2019 alone, 37 people were imprisoned on political grounds;
Many of the arrested and convicted persons were transferred from the Crimean peninsula in violation of Art. 49 and Art. 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949;
Since the beginning of the occupation, 45 cases of enforced disappearance have been registered (as of June 2019);
About 18,900 residents of Crimea were conscripted into the Russian army in 2015-2019. As of August 2019, the Russian occupation authorities had initiated 69 criminal cases for evasion of military service, with convictions for 64 of them;
Most Crimean conscripts were transferred to Russian territory for military service in violation of Art. 49 and Art. 51 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949;
24 Ukrainian Navy sailors remain in custody, despite gross violations of the Third Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 1949 and the interim measures of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) of 25 May 2019 ordering Russia to immediately release Ukrainian naval vessels and detained crew;
The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People has been banned as an extremist organization since April 2016. Russia continues to refuse to comply with the interim measures of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 19 April 2019, which, among other things, ordered the resumption of the Mejlis’s activities in Crimea;
After the annexation, the number of Crimean students receiving education in the Ukrainian language decreased from 12,694 to 249 (by 98%). Russia continues to refuse to comply with the provisional measures of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of April 19, 2019, which also ordered access to education in the Ukrainian language in Crimea;
The Russian occupation authorities restrict freedom of religion on the peninsula. In particular, Russian security forces have periodically searched mosques.
In addition, in June 2019, the Crimean “court” seized the premises of the cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Simferopol;
The Russian occupation authorities are hindering freedom of peaceful assembly in Crimea, imposing administrative fines on participants of peaceful protests and individual pickets;
Detention conditions in the Simferopol SIZO – the only pre-trial detention center on the peninsula – are considered inhumane: overcrowding (the number of prisoners is almost twice the maximum capacity of the institution), unsanitary conditions, lack of proper medical care, etc.
A possible visit by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, to Crimea has been discussed since June 2019. There are concerns that her possible visit will not help improve the human rights situation in Crimea, but will create certain risks for Ukraine.
First, Russia is most likely demonstrating the “Potemkin villages” in Crimea to the Commissioner in order to convince the international community that Russia respects the rights of ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, and that the well-being of Crimeans has increased since “reunification” with Russia.
Second, Russia is trying to remove the Crimean issue from the international agenda based on a preliminary report on human rights abuses in Crimea following a possible visit by Mijatović.
Third, the trust of the Ukrainian state and society in the Council of Europe’s human rights mechanisms will be significantly reduced if Mijatović’s visit to Crimea is symbolic, especially after the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is reinstated.