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 9 March 2026, at the 61st Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Human Rights Research League (HRRL) delivered an oral statement during the Annual Debate on the Rights of the Child. Speaking on behalf of HRRL, Viktoriia Tsymbaliuk emphasized that 50,000 Ukrainian children had lost one or both parents due to Russia's war of aggression, 20,000 children remained under occupation and 300,000 children whom the Russian Federation itself once claimed had been taken to its territory, had a fate yet unknown. Thousands of children had been killed or injured by attacks on civilian infrastructure, and children who returned from occupation faced deep trauma, having endured propaganda, harassment for their Ukrainian identity, separation from families, and exposure to violence. They require urgent medical care, psychological rehabilitation, safe reintegration, and family reunification.

 

For further details, please see the video of the Oral Statement on UN Web TV.