The ECtHR Consolidated the Netherlands and Ukraine’s Lawsuits Against Russia

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has decided to consolidate two other interstate cases to Ukraine’s lawsuit against Russia over the aggression in Donbas. This was reported by Ivan Lishchyna, the Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine, Commissioner for the European Court of Human Rights in the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

According to Lishchyna, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has decided to consolidate the case “Ukraine v. Russia no. 43800/14 ” (concerning children from state institutions illegally taken to Russia at the beginning of the war) and the case “Netherlands v. Russia no. 28525/20” (concerning the crash of flight MH17 in the sky over Donbas in July 2014) to the interstate case “Ukraine v. Russia no. 8019/16.”

The case is entitled “Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia nos. 43800/14, 8019/16 and 28525/20” now.

“The benefits are in the fact that the Dutch case has more materials from the criminal case on MH17, which were not given to us at the time, referring to the investigation secrecy. Now, these materials will be in our case. Besides, the second applicant’s accession to the case reinforces its context: human rights violations by the Russian Federation during the invasion of sovereign Ukrainian territory,” Lishchyna informs.

Albeit this decision can delay the case’s consideration because Russia has not commented on the Netherlands statement yet.

“Anyway, we will ask the ECtHR to expedite the Dutch case’s consideration so that the statements’ consolidation supported by Ukraine does not lead to a delay in its complaints’ consideration,” the ECtHR Commissioner said.

Natalia Tolub