UN Recording Torture and Persecution in Occupied Crimea

The UN Secretary-General’s interim report on the human rights situation in Crimea occupied by Russia, which will be presented at the 21 June session of the UN Human Rights Council, records torture and persecution.

“The report records the continuing practices of illegal persecution of Crimeans, torture for self-incrimination, transfer of illegally convicted people to Russia, impunity of the Russian occupation authorities, including the FSB,” First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Emine Dzheppar posted on her Facebook page.

According to her, the reports also points out the facts of retrospective application of Russian legislation, in particular to crack down on freedom of the media and deprive Crimeans of housing, which is actually one of the forms of forced change in the demographic composition of the population on the occupied peninsula.

“Russian lawlessness also includes the attack on freedom of religion, in particular the persecution of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” the deputy minister wrote.

Dzheppar also stressed that all the practices, which are recorded in the report, were a violation of international law and had been brought by the Russian Federation as the occupying power to the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and Donbas.

Bohdan Marusyak