Human Rights Research League

Research. Education. Advocacy. Development. (R.E.A.D.)

Ukraine

 

In the fourth year of its war of aggression against Ukraine, the Russian Federation continues its flagrant violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, as comprehensively documented by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine.

 

Among the many atrocities committed, particularly outrageous is the treatment accorded to Ukrainian servicemen and -women hors de combat, POWs and retained medical personnel, who have been systematically and in a widespread manner subjected to torture, including sexual violence, by the Russian authorities. 

 

Other appallling actions by the Russian Federation concern the expansion of its activities of indoctrinating Ukrainian children in Russian occupied territory and enrolling them in military training for service to the Russian State. Compelling in this fashion allegiance to an Occupying Power is contrary to both IHL and IHRL.

 

The sum of the atrocities committed against, and policies enforced upon Ukrainians by the Russian Federation in its war of aggression against Ukraine have caused tremendous physical and psychological harm to the people of Ukraine. 

 

Human Rights Research League regularly intervenes on these and other issues of concern to Ukraine at the UN Human Rights Council, submits written statements to the UN, organizes side events, seminars and conference, and has supported Ukraine in Rule of Law initiatives and in the form of providing guest lectures on Upholding Human Rights to students at universities in Ukraine during the ongoing war.  

 

 

 

On 16 October 2025, Human Rights Research League (HRRL) and Oslo New University College (ONUC) co-organized a seminar at ONUC on 'Mental Health in Failing States'. The seminar focused on what impact living in a long-term situation of war, conflict, and insecurity has on the mental health of a population. The seminar, based in part on Human Rights Research League's recent research report conducted in partnership with the University of Montreal, took the situation in Lebanon from the civil war in the 1970s as a point of departure and discussed the relevance of the findings to similar situations of long-term conflict, neglect and/or state failure, including Afghanistan, the Congo (DRC), Gaza, Iran, Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine.