The coalition "Ukraine. Five o'clock in the Morning" coalition has released a report entitled "Enforced Disappearances: National Practice v. International Standards".
Since 2014, Russia has been illegally detaining Ukrainians in the occupied territories, and these cases have increased after 2022. In fact, anyone can be subjected to enforced disappearances, but more often Russians abduct those who have an active civic or pro-Ukrainian position, are former military personnel, work in local government or law enforcement, or simply speak Ukrainian.
This report assesses Ukraine's capacity to comply with international law to protect victims of enforced disappearances. In particular, the study finds that Russia's war against Ukraine has forced law enforcement agencies to reassess the practice of criminal procedure law, and that obtaining evidence has become the biggest challenge for investigations. Law enforcement officials do not have access to the occupied territory where Russians are committing crimes. It is also difficult to communicate with witnesses and victims who are either under occupation or have moved abroad. In addition, there is a basic rule for collecting evidence under the CPC of Ukraine: information collected by non-governmental organisations cannot be used as evidence in proceedings. This means that in practice, data from NGOs that document war crimes require proper verification, which greatly slows down the investigation process.
The study was conducted by the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group, the Media Initiative for Human Rights, and the ZMINA Human Rights Centre on behalf of the coalition of NGOs Ukraine. Five in the Morning". The coalition unites the efforts of 38 NGOs in the field of protection of victims of armed aggression in Ukraine and bringing to justice the top leadership of Russia and direct perpetrators of the most serious international crimes.
The study is available for review here.
02.05.2024
