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Resolution 2112 (2016)
The humanitarian concerns with regard to people captured during the war in Ukraine
1. Since the illegal annexation of
Crimea by the Russian Federation and the beginning of military aggression
in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in eastern Ukraine, hundreds
of Ukrainian servicemen and civilians have been reported captured
or abducted.
2. According to the Security Service of Ukraine, 3 015 captured
persons have been released since April 2014, but 123 persons are
still being held captive by the separatists and 693 are still reported
missing. However, these numbers do not include all the people who
have been captured by the separatists in the occupied territories,
as their relatives are often afraid to declare their captivity to
the Ukrainian authorities.
3. The Parliamentary Assembly is deeply concerned about the numerous
reports of inhumane and degrading treatment of captured persons,
who are subjected to torture, ill-treatment and sexual violence. Moreover,
there is also evidence that captured persons have been executed
by the separatist forces.
4. The Assembly is also very worried about the situation in Crimea
where, since the illegal annexation of the peninsula by the Russian
Federation, the de facto authorities
have been using Russian legislation against extremism, separatism
and terrorism to detain Crimean-Tatar and Ukrainian activists. The
Assembly condemns the recent banning of the Mejlis as an extremist
organisation, which is contrary to international standards and demonstrates
the systematic violation of the Crimean Tatars' rights.
5. Furthermore, the Assembly is alarmed by reports from human
rights defenders concerning 11 Ukrainian prisoners reportedly being
detained by the Russian authorities in violation of international
law on fabricated charges. In addition, at least 10 Ukrainian citizens
are being held in Crimea on politically motivated charges.
6. The most flagrant example is the case of a member of the Parliamentary
Assembly, Ms Nadiia Savchenko, who was forcibly taken to the Russian
Federation and has been illegally held in custody since June 2014
despite, inter alia, her enjoying
immunity under Article 40.a of
the Statute of the Council of Europe (ETS No. 1) and the General
Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Council of Europe
and its Additional Protocol (ETS Nos. 2 and 10) to which the Russian
Federation is a party. Following an unfair trial, the Russian court
sentenced Ms Savchenko to 22 years in prison accusing her of the
murder of two Russian journalists. In protest against this verdict,
Ms Savchenko started a new hunger strike. The Assembly strongly
condemns the unlawful arrest, detention and trial of Ms Savchenko
in the Russian Federation and calls for her immediate release.
7. The Assembly calls on all member States of the Council of
Europe to adopt targeted sanctions (in particular travel bans and
freezing of accounts) against individuals involved in the kidnapping,
unlawful detention, unfair trial and conviction of Ms Savchenko,
while respecting the principles laid down by the Assembly in its Resolution 1966 (2014) on
refusing impunity for the killers of Sergei Magnitsky (in particular
to allow individuals concerned to use appropriate representations
in their defence), unless Ms Savchenko is released without further
delay. It welcomes, in this connection, the recent adoption, by
Lithuania, of a “Savchenko blacklist” identifying 46 people for
their role in her trial. Similar measures should be considered with
regard to the cases of 10 other Ukrainian prisoners reportedly detained
by the Russian authorities on fabricated charges.
8. Moreover, the Assembly notes with great concern reported cases
of violations of the right to liberty and the right to a fair trial
of those who have been detained by the Ukrainian secret services
or by different Ukrainian military battalions, including voluntary
battalions. It calls on the Ukrainian authorities to investigate
all such cases and to punish the perpetrators in accordance with
the relevant Ukrainian legislation.
9. The Assembly believes that without the strong determination
of all sides to stop this war, a solution to the problem of people
captured during the Russian military aggressions in Ukraine is not
possible. Therefore, it urges Ukraine, the Russian Federation and
the separatist groups controlling the occupied territories of the Donetsk
and Luhansk regions to:
9.1. stop
all military operations in the east of Ukraine, withdraw all weapons
and restore peace in this region;
9.2. implement, without further delay, the Minsk Agreement,
especially prioritising the paragraph on the release of all captured
persons; their release should not be based upon the fulfilment of
other Minsk Agreement points;
9.3. respect international humanitarian law and the rights
and obligations of the parties in respect of prisoners of war and
the protection of civilians, which are provided for in the Third
and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the two additional protocols
of 1977 (on international and non-international armed conflicts);
9.4. grant international humanitarian organisations access
to all detainees, without any conditions.
10. The Assembly further urges the authorities of the Russian
Federation to:
10.1. release all
Ukrainian prisoners captured and imprisoned in the Russian Federation
and in illegally annexed Crimea on politically motivated charges,
including, but not limited to, Mr Ahtem Çiygöz;
10.2. conduct effective investigations and prosecute perpetrators
in cases of abduction, enforced disappearances, torture and politically
motivated killings of Ukrainian and Crimean-Tatar activists in Crimea;
10.3. use their influence over the separatist groups which control
the occupied territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions to urge
them to release all Ukrainian captives;
10.4. immediately provide unimpeded access to Crimea for conventional
and monitoring mechanisms of international human rights organisations;
10.5. immediately release Ms Savchenko, who enjoys European
parliamentary immunity under the General Agreement on Privileges
and Immunities of the Council of Europe, and other illegally detained Ukrainian
prisoners, and allow their return to Ukraine.
11. The Assembly urges the separatist groups which control the
occupied territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions to:
11.1. release all captured prisoners
and hostages;
11.2. stop all violations of human rights, in particular the
abduction, torture and politically motivated killing of Ukrainian
citizens;
11.3. co-operate with the Ukrainian side in the co-ordination
of lists and categories of captured persons with a view to their
exchange in the framework of the Minsk Agreement based on the “all
for all” principle;
11.4. grant international humanitarian missions access to all
places of detention of captured persons.
12. The Assembly further urges the Ukrainian authorities to:
12.1. as regards legal measures:
12.1.1. ratify in the shortest possible time the Rome Statute
in order to allow the International Criminal Court to conduct effective
investigations into concrete cases of violations of international humanitarian
law during the war in Ukraine;
12.1.2. conduct effective investigations and prosecute all alleged
perpetrators in cases of abduction and taking of captives, as well
as in cases of extortion, bribery and corruption linked to the liberation
of captured persons;
12.1.3. bring their national legislation, including the Criminal
Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, into line with the provisions
of international criminal law, and in particular include a status
of captured person, and make torture a serious crime;
12.1.4. modify the Law “On preventing persecution and punishment
of participants in events on the territories of the Donetsk and
Luhansk Oblasts”, ensure that persons who have committed war crimes
do not receive amnesty, and ensure that amnesty is only used after
a proper investigation and a fair trial;
12.1.5. draft a new law on psychological rehabilitation in close
consultation with non-governmental organisations and international
specialists working in this field, in particular taking into account
the needs of victims of military operations;
12.2. as regards assistance to captured persons and their families:
12.2.1. devise a mechanism of State compensation and support to
the families of captured persons and ensure that the families concerned
are informed about the existence of this mechanism;
12.2.2. ensure that, after their liberation, captured persons
are assisted with their return home and provided with medical, social
and psychological support;
12.2.3. introduce a special procedure to facilitate the restoration
of documents of released persons;
12.2.4. provide special training to psychologists and other medical
staff on how to provide psychological rehabilitation which addresses
the specific needs of captured persons and their families.
13. The Assembly calls on the international community to be more
involved in the process of the release of captives; in particular
it calls on:
13.1. the Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe to facilitate negotiations
and the settlement of the problem of captured persons in the humanitarian
working group set up under the Minsk Agreement;
13.2. the International Committee of the Red Cross to step up
its efforts to obtain unrestricted access to all persons detained
in relation to the war, monitor their conditions of detention and
the treatment afforded to them and, in its capacity of neutral intermediary,
facilitate operations of simultaneous liberation.
14. The Assembly encourages the European Committee for the Prevention
of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to establish
a special monitoring mission to check the conditions of detention
of Ukrainian prisoners detained for political motives in the Russian
Federation and in Crimea and those illegally held on the territories
under the control of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” and “Luhansk
People’s Republic”. The mission should also monitor the situation
of those who were detained by the Ukrainian authorities on allegations
of their involvement in separatist and terrorist activities during
the war in Ukraine.