The European Court of Human Rights holds Russia accountable for widespread and flagrant abuses of human rights arising from the conflict in Ukraine since 2014, in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The case Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia concerned the conflict that began in eastern Ukraine in 2014 following the arrival in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of pro-Russian armed groups, and escalated after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine beginning on 24 February 2022.
It also concerned the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014, killing all those on board, many of whom were Dutch nationals.
In Grand Chamber judgment the European Court of Human Rights held unanimously that, in respect of the conflict in Ukraine between 11 May 2014 – when the hostilities started – and 16 September 2022 – when Russia ceased to be a party to the European Convention on Human Rights – there had been patterns of violations of:
Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (prohibition of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment), 4 § 2 (prohibition of forced labour), 5 (right to liberty and security), 8 (right to respect for private and family life), 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion), 10 (freedom of expression), 11 (freedom of assembly and association), 13 (right to an effective remedy) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention and Articles 1 (protection of property) and 2 (right to education) of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention.
The Court underlined that “In none of the conflicts previously before [it had] there been such near universal condemnation of the ‘flagrant’ disregard by the respondent State for the foundations of the international legal order established after the Second World War.”
