ECHR gets 4,226 cases on Crimea, Donbas

01.02.2018 13:22

Ukrinform

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has already received 4,226 cases concerning events in Crimea and Donbas. Of these, 257 were filed against Russia and 3,000 against Ukraine.

This was stated by Ukrainian Deputy Justice Minister and Commissioner for the European Court of Human Rights Ivan Lishchyna, the press service of the Ukrainian Justice Ministry reported.

"The ECHR has 4,226 cases concerning events in Crimea and Donbas. Of these, only 257 were filed against Russian, 908 simultaneously against Ukraine and Russia, and almost 3,000 against Ukraine," he said.

According to him, 55 cases against Ukraine and Russia are related to events in Donbas in 2014-2015.

"These are mostly complaints of Ukrainian volunteers who were captured during the Ilovaisk tragedy," Lishchyna said.

In addition, the deputy minister said, cases against Ukraine filed by relatives of those who were killed in the downing of the MH17 flight in July 2014 are equally important.

"There are now four of them. Applicants reside in Germany. Working with them is a German lawyer who has ties with Russian companies. The application was formulated so that the guilt of Ukraine is allegedly that it allowed civilian aircraft to fly over its territory. Today, there are no decisions on these cases," Lishchyna said.

In addition, he said, the ECHR has five interstate cases "Ukraine-Russia" related to Russian aggression.

"The ECHR considers cases of citizens against states. The court protects individuals from arbitrariness of the state. But there is such a procedure as an inter-state complaint in violation of human rights. There have been 23 of them over the entire history of the court, and now five of them are ours, against Russia," he said.

According to him, the main task is to establish facts of violation of the rights of Ukrainian citizens and establish Russia's responsibility for what is happening in occupied Donbas and Crimea.

If the court recognizes it, then this will actually be recognition of occupation by Russia, the deputy minister said.

"This will be the decision of an international court. This will not be a Ukrainian law, which extends only to the territory of Ukraine. This will be a fact established by an international court, which will not have to be proved," Lishchyna said.