Russia’s filing a complaint against Ukraine with the European Court of Human Rights is long overdue, Lugansk People’s Republic representative in the Contact Group subgroup on political issues Rodion Miroshnik told the Lugansk Media Centre.
On July 20, the Russian Federation lodged an interstate complaint against Ukraine with the ECHR, based on Article 33 of the Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. It is expected to draw the international community’s attention to “gross and systemic human rights violations by Ukrainian authorities, record numerous facts of crimes in the international legal framework and make Ukrainian authorities stop their perpetration.” The complaint covers ten basic categories of human rights violations by Ukrainian authorities starting 2014.
“We welcome this move on the part of Russia, which is long overdue,” Miroshnik said. “Kiev’s actions in Donbass need international legal assessment. Impunity is followed by new crimes and human rights violations which divide people into those who can enjoy rights and those who can’t.”
As Kiev “encourages radicals’ impunity in all ways while prosecuting Donbass residents simply for living in the territory of the Republics, you cannot expect fair trial in Ukraine. This move by Russia is warranted by the situation in which Ukraine finds itself today after the government overthrow,“ the LPR representative said.
“A paradoxical situation is developing where a large database of international organizations such as the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, International Committee of the Red Cross is only found in numerous reports, which are not followed by criminal cases and prosecution,” Miroshnik said.
The Russian complaint with the ECHR gives hope that the international judicial body would rule on claims by Donbass residents who suffered from Kiev’s actions, he said.
“The claims which are filed in large numbers by Donbass residents are mostly not heard by the court; in this connection, we pin great hopes on the Russian complaint which would break the ice creating a precedent. It would make groundwork for rulings on our citizens’ claims against Ukraine over murders, torture, political persecution and pension debts,” the LPR representative said.
Earlier, spokeswoman for the LPR Prosecutor General’s Office Inna Semyonova said that prosecutors had helped more than 850 residents hurt in Ukrainian army actions draw complaints with the European Court of Human Rights.
The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. Conflict settlement relies on the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, signed on February 12, 2015 in the Belarussian capital by the Contact Group members and coordinated by the Normandy Four heads of states (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine). The UN Security Council approved the document by Resolution No 2202 of February 17, 2015 and called upon the parties to ensure its implementation.
The document provides for comprehensive ceasefire, withdrawal of all heavy weapons from the contact line, starting a dialog on reconstruction of social and economic ties between Kiev and Donbass. It also envisages carrying out constitutional reform in Ukraine providing for decentralization and adopting permanent legislation on a special status of certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. *i*s
