Commissioner for Human Rights: Ukraine Ignores Problem of Missing Persons

According to the SBU, during the years of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, 258 people have gone missing, including 67 servicemen and reservists. Some 43 cases of enforced disappearance have been documented in the territory of the occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova said.

She recalled that on 11 November 2020, the President of Ukraine issued a decree according to which annually on 30 August, the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, events are held in our country to guarantee the protection of the rights and interests of persons missing in special circumstances, victims of enforced disappearances, and members of their families. However, today the measures set by the Presidential Decree and the norms of the Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Status of Missing Persons” are not implemented by the responsible authorities.

“The Commission on Missing Persons in Special Circumstances, which is supposed to organise the search for such persons, after my repeated appeals to the government, held its first meeting only in the autumn of 2020. To date, it has managed to hold only a few inaugural meetings, due to lack of adequate funding. In fact, no issue was considered,” Denisova said.

Natalia Tolub