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 the occasion of the Bergen Exchanges on Law & Social Transformation conference, Human Rights Research League (HRRL) will take part in a roundtable on 'Mental Health, Resilience & Resistance in Times of War'. The event, to take place on 20 August 2026 and co-organized with the University of Bergen, the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), and the Centre on Law & Social Transformation, will include Angana Chatterji (University of California, Berkeley), Garine Papazian-Zohrabian (University of Montreal), Milica Javdan (HRRL), Munzoul Assal (CMI), and Tom Syring (HRRL). For futher information, please see the roundtable flyer and the full description in the conference program.

 

The roundtable will be accompanied by a photo exhibition on 'Ukraine: Daily Resistance', featuring photographs taken by Ukrainian photojournalist Yan Dobronosov since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine.