Ukraine v. Russia: Justice Ministry outlines main challenge of case at ECHR

29.07.2021 14:21

Ukrinform

Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine, Government Agent before the European Court of Human Rights Ivan Lishchyna believes that Ukraine and the Netherlands will win the lawsuit over Russia's responsibility for human rights violations in Donbas.

Lishchyna said this in an interview with the Yevropeyska Pravda online media outlet, Ukrinform reports.

In particular, Lishchyna expressed the opinion that Ukraine had good chance to win.

"I really hope so. We have gathered enough evidence," he explained.

The lawyer stressed that the main challenge is the legal proof of Russia’s control over the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and this decision will be the main victory of the Ukrainian side. "The key point in this case is the effective control of the Russian Federation in this territory. And if we pass this filter in the European Court of Human Rights, then everything else is more or less easy ... We, of course, also prove the existence of human rights violations. But they [Russians] do this so brazenly and openly, it’s a total breeze to prove," the deputy minister said.

Lishchyna said that the ultimate goal of the Ukrainian side in this action was the recognition of the fact that "the territory, in which the pseudo-referendum [in the part of Donetsk and Luhansk regions that got beyond the control of the Ukrainian central government] was held, has been under the control of the Russian Federation since its conduct".

However, the deputy minister clarified that part of localities occasionally returned to the control of Kyiv, so Ukraine is also proving a more complicated scheme of Kyiv's loss of control over certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

As reported, on June 29, Lishchyna informed that a hearing of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in the case Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia is scheduled for November 24, 2021.

In November 2020, the Grand Chamber of the ECHR attached Ukraine v. Russia case No. 43800/14 (regarding children from state institutions who were illegally taken to Russia at the beginning of the war) and the Netherlands v. Russia case No. 28525/20 (the Dutch interstate legal action regarding MH17) to the interstate case Ukraine v. Russia (re Eastern Ukraine) No. 8019/16.

The new title of the case is Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russian Federation nos. 8019/16, 43800/14, and 28525/20.