Human Rights Research League

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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 22 September 2025, at the 60th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Human Rights Research League delivered an oral statement in connection with the Interactive Dialogue with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Ukraine. In his intervention, HRRL Chairman Tom Syring referred to the investigations by the COI, OHCHR, the ICC, and others that had documented widespread torture of Ukrainian POWs, with brutal beatings, electric shocks, mock executions, sexual violence, and prolonged deprivation of food and water, and underlined that these actions constitute war crimes.

 

Equally abhorrent is the targeting of Ukrainian civilians in occupied territories, where activists, journalists, community leaders, and ordinary citizens have been abducted, tortured, and sometimes killed.

 

These atrocities committed by the Russian Federation are not the result of battlefield chaos, but deliberate instruments of a campaign aimed at destroying the Ukrainian people, erasing their culture, and undermining the principles upon which the United Nations were founded. These acts violate the Geneva Conventions, constitute crimes against humanity, and must not remain unchallenged. For the full statement, please see the video of the Oral Statement on UN Web TV.

 

On 3 October 2025, during the Interactive Dialogue on Ukraine with the High Commissioner for Human Rights, HRRL Political Adviser Milica Javdan underlined that the Russian Federation had escalated its use of drones against Ukrainian civilians to unprecedented levels, killing civilians and systematically targeting civilian infrastructure, rendering large localities increasingly unlivable. HRRL called upon the Human Rights Council to condemn Russia's use of drone warfare targeting civilian populations, demand accountability, provide immediate support to Ukraine's mental health infrastructure, and strengthen civilian protection measures. For the full statement, please see the video of the Oral Statement on UN Web TV.

 

Human Rights Research League also submitted a Written Statement on 'Continuing Russian Violations of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law in the Russian Federation's War of Aggression against Ukraine' (UN doc. A/HRC/60/NGO/294) to the United Nations General Assembly.