At the joint initiative of the Office of the President of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Presidential Delegation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, a web platform was created for effective collection and processing of information on human rights violations by the Russian Federation.

The collected facts will be used as evidence for the defense and representation of Ukraine in the European Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice of the United Nations.

On the intergovernmental platform https://humanrights.gov.ua representatives of human rights organizations, experts in the field of human rights, representatives of the scientific community and everyone who has information about the facts of human rights violations or has become a victim or witness of such events will be able to submit the relevant information in a clear form.

In order to record a human rights violation and/or a crime committed, it is necessary to fill up a form, describe the fact of human rights violation by the invader, attach the available evidence: photos, videos, documents, information about witnesses, victims of the incident.

According to Yuliia Sokolovska, Deputy Head of the Office of the President: “This initiative is especially important now! We were able to coordinate the efforts of the Office of the President, the relevant ministries and partners and in a short time to create an intergovernmental platform, which will allow us to collect evidence of human rights violations in Ukraine. The received information will allow to bring the Russian Federation to responsibility and to defend interests of Ukraine at the international judicial platforms!”

All information and witnesses who provide it will be reliably protected. This information will be developed by a qualified team of lawyers and prepared to protect the interests of Ukraine! The evidentiary basis will be used only in court cases against the Russian Federation in compliance with international standards of justice.

Valeriia Kolomiets, Deputy Minister of Justice for European Integration, noted: “Our Ministry has been conducting an effective legal war against the Russian Federation on the platform of the European Court of Human Rights for 8 years. In the first week since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale military actions on the territory of Ukraine, we convinced the court to apply precautionary measures against the Russian Federation, which now automatically apply to every individual application that people already submit to the Court against the Russian Federation. The launch of this portal will help us to more effectively and quickly establish the work of protecting the rights of people during the military aggression of the occupant country”.

The first such cases have already succeeded! On March 1, the European Court of Human Rights granted an application filed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice for interim measures, namely, to oblige the Russian Federation:

• not to carry out military attacks on civilians and civilian facilities, including housing, ambulance vehicles, and other civilian facilities under special protection, such as schools, hospitals
• and to immediately secure medical care facilities, their personnel and ambulances in the territory targeted or sieged by Russian troops.

This case is unique because, for the first time, the ECHR extended this decision not only to interstate, but also to the individual applications for interim measures, which will be applied to the court because of the military aggression of the Russian Federation in the future.

While the Armed Forces of Ukraine are defending our country from the invader every minute – we are already preparing the positions of Ukraine to bring the Russian Federation to legal responsibility in the relevant international judicial platforms.

Source: www.kmu.gov.ua