After Crimea ruling, ECHR could proceed to individual claims - President’s Office

After the European Court of Human Rights recognized the Russian government as responsible for the administrative practice of rights violations in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, the court will be able to proceed to hearing individual claims.

This was stated by the Deputy Head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, Iryna Mudra, the Office’s press service reports, according to Ukrinform.

"The ruling is the first in which the international court recognized the Russian Federation as responsible for the policy of large-scale and systematic violations of various human rights and freedoms on the temporarily occupied territory of the Crimean Peninsula. Now the ECHR will be able to move on to considering individual claims," Mudra said.

The report posted on the President's website notes that the ECHR found the Russian government responsible for the administrative practice of human rights violations in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. In its ruling, the Court indicated that the government of Ukraine provided comprehensive evidence of systematic violations of human rights and freedoms by Russian representatives and persons under their control. These include illegal detentions and searches, ill-treatment and persecution of representatives of the religious community and Crimean Tatars, suspension of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar media, and banning of the Ukrainian language in schools.

The ECHR also noted that Russia is responsible for violating the rights of Ukrainian political prisoners, who are persecuted for their pro-Ukrainian stance.

As reported by Ukrinform, on June 25, the ECHR handed down the judgment on the merits of the first interstate case Ukraine v. Russia (regarding Crimea), recognizing numerous human rights violations in the temporarily occupied Crimea by the aggressor state.