STRASBOURG, France (CN) — One side of the circular, blue-carpeted courtroom in Strasbourg remained empty on Wednesday while judges at Europe’s top rights court listened to lawyers for Ukraine describe torture and killings in Crimea since Russia annexed the region in 2014.
The European Court of Human Rights held a hearing for the first time in its 64-year history without the appearance of one of the countries involved in the dispute.
Ukraine told the 20-judge panel that Russia has detained civilians, tortured political leaders, unlawfully seized property and established an illegal border on the Black Sea peninsula. “Taken together, this is a situation that calls for unequivocal condemnation,” lawyer Ben Emmerson said on behalf of Ukraine.
Under court rules, the case can continue despite Russia’s lack of participation. The Russian Federation is “not released from its obligations” under the European Convention of Human Rights, president Síofra O'Leary said as she opened the short hearing, despite having left the Council of Europe, the court’s oversight body, last year.
Kyiv filed a complaint with the court weeks after masked gunmen seized control of Crimea's parliament building in 2014. A second complaint was added in 2015.
In 2021, the court ruled the case was partially admissible, despite Russian arguments that the case was there was no proof of systemic oppression. During hearings over admissibility in 2019, Moscow claimed the annexation was legal.
Ukraine's deputy justice minister Iryna Mudra referred to Crimea as “temporarily occupied territory” repeatedly during her remarks.
Disputes between states are rare at the court, though they have increased in recent years. Of the 30 such complaints in the court’s history, 14 have been filed against Russia.
The pair have four cases pending, including one brought with the Netherlands over the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014. Three men were convicted in a Dutch court last year of transporting the surface-to-air missile that shot down the Boeing 777, killing all 298 people on board, from the Russian military to eastern Ukraine.
Crimea has been a topic at other international proceedings as well. The International Court of Justice, the United Nations top court, is currently considering arguments from Ukraine and Russia over alleged racial discrimination against non-Russians, including the Tartars, a Turkic-speaking people indigenous to the region. Ukraine says Moscow is violating the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Ukraine has also brought multiple cases against Russia stemming from the full-scale invasion. Both the human rights court and the International Court of Justice ordered Russia to stop the conflict just days after it began in cases that are still pending.
In June, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that ancient pieces loaned from museums in Crimea before Russia’s annexation of the peninsula must be returned to Ukraine, as they are part of the country’s cultural heritage.
The court is expected to rule on the Crimea case in 2024.
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