The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine found new evidence that “Russian authorities committed violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law in areas under their control in Ukraine” Is documented other indiscriminate attacks by “the Russian armed forces, causing death and injury to civilians and destruction and damage to civilian property and facilities.”
The evidence gathered also shows that “Russian authorities committed war crimes of voluntary manslaughter, torture, rape and other types of sexual violence, as well as the deportation of children to the Russian Federation”.
The authorities of the Russian Federation “they resorted to torture in a widespread and systematic manner in various types of detention centers they maintained.” The more than four hundred interviews conducted by Commission investigators with victims and witnesses “revealed a profound disregard for human dignity by the Russian authorities in these circumstances.” The Commission also documented cases in which “Russian soldiers broke into houses in the villages they occupied, raped women and girls, and committed other war crimes against the victims and their families.”
In “In three cases, investigations also revealed that Ukrainian authorities committed human rights violations” against people they accused of collaborating with the Moscow authorities.
Due to the large number of “relevant events and logistical and security limitations, the Commission focused on samples of complaints and cases that illustrate specific patterns.” To prepare the report, “The Commission visited 32 villages in 9 regions of Ukraine, most of which were in the provinces of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, and traveled to Poland.”. The Commission “was based on “466 interviews with 445 people (222 women and 223 men), inspected attack sites and places where detentions and torture were committed, and collected and examined documents, photographs and videos”.
The commission appointed by the UN human rights council and commissioned in March last year, is led by Norwegian Erik Møse and also includes Pablo de Greiff (Colombia and Vrinda Grover (India). This report shows “Concerned by the seriousness of the documented violations and crimes and the impact they have on victims, survivors and affected communities.”
The Commission asks the parties involved in the conflict to “end war crimes and human rights violations, ensuring timely, complete, independent, impartial and transparent investigation and prosecution all accusations of international crimes, violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including sexual and gender-based violence and violence against children; to ratify international instruments to which they are not yet a party and to strengthen the protection of civilians in armed conflicts.
The Commission, among other recommendations, understands that The Russian Federation must immediately take all possible precautions to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including those related to energy.which were severely damaged after the massive attacks from October 2022 to March of this year, “strictly comply with international humanitarian law and respect the temporary nature of any transfer or evacuation of children, guaranteeing their rapid return; release or return to Ukraine all Ukrainian civilians who have been deported to the Russian Federation and are detained there as a result of the armed conflict.”
The Commission recommends that Ukraine, as preliminary step towards a global reparations program, establish a registry of victims as an “institutional portal” for better coordination of government services to victims”; respond fully to “mental health and psychosocial needs resulting from the armed conflict, addressing access and allocation of resources to relevant services, as well as strengthening their institutional coordination, legal regulation, control and evaluation; consider the possibility of create a DNA record it can help identify and recover missing children; harmonize national legislation relating to war crimes, whenever it does not comply with international standards, and modify its penal code to clarify the definition of “collaborative activity”to avoid its application”.
The Commission recommends that other States and regional and international organizations strengthen national, regional and international accountability mechanisms, both judicial and non-judicial, in particular by improving their coordination and also proposes “that national programs of national reconstruction or restitution of assets recognized as necessary are not designed to the detriment of the victims”; continue “integrating the human rights dimension of the armed conflict in Ukraine and “The dimension of human rights in the armed conflict in Ukraine” on the agenda of the Security Council.
Source: TSF
