Human rights situation in Ukraine deteriorates as attacks intensify amid ongoing persecution in Russian-occupied territories: OSCE human rights office

WARSAW, 13 December 2024 – The human rights situation in Ukraine has continued to worsen amid increased aerial attacks that include systematic strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure, as well as intensified hostilities on the front line, leading to a surge in civilian casualties. Meanwhile, arbitrary detention, torture and coercion continued in areas of the country under Russian occupation, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said in its latest report on violations of international law in Ukraine.

ODIHR has been monitoring human rights in the context of the war in Ukraine since February 2022, and today’s report on violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law builds on the Office’s previous findings. The report is based on interviews with 94 survivors and witnesses interviewed by ODIHR in the second half of 2024, in addition to remote monitoring and information supplied by the Russian Federation and Ukraine as well as civil society organizations. Overall, ODIHR has carried out almost 500 interviews since its monitoring began in 2022.

The long-term detention of large numbers of Ukrainian civilians by the Russian authorities is of grave concern, with several thousand people missing and believed to be arbitrarily detained both in occupied areas of Ukraine and in the Russian Federation. Widespread reports of torture and inhuman conditions in detention facilities operated by the Russian authorities in occupied territories of Ukraine and in the Russian Federation have fuelled additional fears for the safety of detainees.

All the Ukrainian former prisoners of war interviewed by ODIHR reported severe and routine torture during their internment, supporting ODIHR’s analysis that the torture of both prisoners of war and civilians by the Russian Federation is both widespread and systematic. The proliferation of material disseminated online depicting the torture or execution of Ukrainian POWs suggests this practice may have increased further. ODIHR also found further evidence of ongoing conflict-related sexual violence carried out by the Russian authorities.

ODIHR emphasises that these acts are grave violations of the laws of war and international human rights law, and may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. All parties to an armed conflict must act in line with international humanitarian and human rights law, which explicitly ban indiscriminate attacks against civilians and protect the civilian population against violence and inhumane treatment. The violations that have characterised the war in Ukraine are irreconcilable with the OSCE’s founding principle of respect for human rights as a precondition for the security of the entire region.