In Strasbourg, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Iryna Mudra represented the Ukrainian delegation at the oral hearings in the interstate case of Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia at the European Court of Human Rights.
The case concerns human rights violations committed by Russia since the very beginning of its armed aggression in 2014.
Iryna Mudra emphasized that the aggressive and barbaric behavior of the Russian Federation violates all the basic principles of international law. The Government of Ukraine demonstrated this with evidence during the proceedings in this interstate case.
“Numerous international observers and the ECHR have assessed such actions and highlighted the unwillingness of the Russian authorities to document such massive and systematic human rights violations. The Russian goal of this war has been clearly stated by the Russian authorities on several occasions; and is obvious from their behavior – Russia wants to destroy and assimilate Ukrainians, disrupt public order in Europe and undermine the world order,” the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office noted.
Based on the results of the oral hearings, the Government of our country expects that the ECHR will recognize the existence of human rights violations by Russia and will move to the stage of just satisfaction.
The Ukrainian delegation to the hearings also included the Agent before the ECHR, Margarita Sokorenko, and representatives of the Secretariat of the Agent before the European Court of Human Rights at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.
The case also involves 26 states as third parties. This number, as well as the number of complaints and the scope of the claim, are unprecedented in the history of the ECHR's consideration of interstate cases.
Last year, on January 25, the European Court ruled on the admissibility of this case, becoming the first foreign judicial body to establish that the territories of eastern Ukraine have been occupied since May 11, 2014.