The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced Tuesday that it had registered a formal intergovernmental application by Ukraine against Russia, a rather rare method of identifying human rights violations by Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine began.
On June 23, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights received a formally closed order in this case,” which “concerns the Ukrainian government’s allegations of massive and egregious human rights abuses committed by the Russian Federation in its military operations on the territory of Ukraine since.” February 24, 2022,” announced the ECtHR, the legal arm of the Council of Europe.
So far, the ECtHR had only received requests from Kyiv for “provisional measures,” reserved for emergency situations.
for these reasons, The Court has repeatedly asked Russia to restrict its actions in Ukrainebut the requests were never fulfilled.
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“The Court has now received a full request from the Ukrainian government alleging that the Russian Federation has illegally invaded Ukraine and that its invasion and occupation of certain parts of Ukraine is continuing,” summarizes the Strasbourgbased ECtHR.
“According to the Ukrainian government, the Russian Federation has carried out targeted, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks against civilians and their property throughout Ukraine, in violation of all applicable norms of international law,” the statement released by the ECtHR said.
The Ukrainian government is therefore demanding multiple human rights violations by Russia in its territory.
Moscow remains bound by the ECtHR’s judgments for all acts committed up until midSeptember, despite Russia’s expulsion from the Council of Europe in midMarch.
However, the process launched by Kyiv is unlikely to have much of an impact, as Moscow decided in early June not to apply the ECtHR’s rulings.
Interstate petitions, procedures in which one state sues another, are rare: since 1953 there were only about 20.
This new motion joins the five petitions that Ukraine has filed against Russia in the last five years that are still ongoing.
The ECtHR also received 8,500 individual inquiries related to the events in Crimea.in eastern Ukraine or in the Sea of Azov.
States convicted in this context may have to pay tens of millions to the injured state.