By Galina Korol | 2024-06-25

KYIV -- Ukraine is pushing forward with its quest for justice against Russia's human rights abuses as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) this month heard public oral arguments in a key court case.

The court on June 12 began oral hearings on the inter-state "Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia," a consolidation of several complaints against Russia from 2014 to 2022 and during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine first sued Russia in 2014 for violating human rights in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. It filed another suit the same year for the abduction of orphans by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic.

In 2020, the European court joined to these cases a lawsuit by the Netherlands on Russia's July 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Donetsk, which killed all 298 passengers and crew traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

In February 2023, the court also joined an application regarding accusations of Russian human rights violations after the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 until September 2022.

The next phase in "Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia" will be a ruling, Ukraine's presidential office reported.

"Russia's aggressive and barbaric behavior violates all the basic principles of international law," Iryna Mudra, leader of the Ukrainian delegation to the hearings, said June 12.

"The Russian goal of this war has been clearly stated by the Russian authorities on several occasions ... Russia wants to destroy and assimilate Ukrainians, disrupt public order in Europe, and undermine the world order," she said.

Russian silence

The ECHR hearings are currently considering only the human rights violations that Russia allegedly committed from 2014 to September 2022 -- which was when Russia was expelled from the court after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"Although Russia left the convention, there's still a rule in all international agreements saying that if a case was initiated before a direct withdrawal from the convention's obligations, those cases must be considered fully," Andrii Yakovlev, a managing partner of the Umbrella law firm and an analyst at the Regional Center for Human Rights in Kyiv, told Kontur.

Consequently, the ECHR decided to continue its work on "Ukraine and the Netherlands vs. Russia."

Russia, however, has ignored the case.

"There's a special secure electronic communication system between the ECHR and the [member] states that has existed for many years. Even now it still works in Russia," said Margarita Sokorenko, Ukraine's agent for the European Court of Human Rights and a member of the recent delegation.

"The ECHR sends information to Russia and notifies it about all cases and proceedings, both individual and international, and Russia receives this information but doesn't respond," she told Kontur.

"So the ECHR infers that Russia knows about all the cases, while its failure to respond is just how it behaves in these cases."

Russia has been deliberately taking steps for all those years to drag this case out, Sokorenko said.

"During previous phases, Russia made many requests for extensions so it could have more time to share its positions, evidence and so on."

"And the ECHR gave it this extra time, expecting that Russia would conscientiously submit the required materials, but the upshot ... was that this was more of a way to stretch out the examination of the case," she said.

Long-term ramifications

Cases in international courts are always a long, complicated process, analysts told Kontur.

Ukraine holds out little hope of being able to force Russia to voluntarily abide by the court's rulings.

However, the ramifications of a decision in Ukraine's favor could be more comprehensive than they might seem at first glance, according to Sokorenko.

"The challenge was to legally document by an international judicial tribunal how the seizure happened and what violations occurred, and to prove that this is an entire system and practice of human rights violations," she said.

"And along with being a legal avenue, this will give influence and additional leverage in our foreign policy to our diplomats."

Another important factor is that establishing Russia's responsibility for human rights violations in Ukraine will create a solid foundation for the victims who submitted individual petitions to the ECHR against Russia, including in connection with the full-scale invasion, Sokorenko said.

Consequently, Ukrainian victims will have legal grounds to demand compensation from Russia for violating their rights and causing harm.

"The process to create a compensation mechanism has been set in motion," said Sokorenko.

"And even if Russia doesn't want to voluntarily abide by the court's decision, we're working to ensure a way to get compensation taken from Russia's frozen financial assets."