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 intersessional update on Ukraine on 16 December 2025 with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Tuerk, Human Rights Research League underscored that the Russian Federation has systematically disregarded the most fundamental principles governing human rights and humanitarian law, including the obligation to draw a clear distinction between civilians and combatants, on the battlefield as well as in detention, to respect the laws in force in occupied territory, and the prohibition against deporting persons from that territory. Irrespective of a person's legal status, extrajudicial killings, torture, ill-treatment, and enforced disappearances are prohibited. Russia has violated all those principles and actively taken steps to exempt Russian soldiers from criminal liability for any abuses which otherwise would have been punishable even according to Russian criminal law. These combined measures indicate they may form part of a systematic and widespread policy amounting to crimes against humanity. For further details, please see the video of the Oral Statement on UN Web TV.