Denying a fair trial as an atrocity crime during Russia’s war against Ukraine – the UN HRC58 side event

The Human Rights Centre ZMINA, together with its civil society and state partners, organised the side event “Denying a fair trial as an atrocity crime during Russia’s war against Ukraine” on the margin of the 58th UN Human Rights Council. It will take place on the 21st of March at 13:00 in the XXII room of the Palais des Nations.

The event aims to shed light on Russia’s widespread practice of the denial of the right to a fair trial to both Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war (POWs) in the occupied territories and within the territory of the Russian Federation. Based on monitoring, as well as analysis of hundreds of court sessions, the following issues will be addressed:

• Trials as a tool of Russia’s policy of persecution targeting ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars.
• The denial of the right to a fair trial in the occupied territories and an overview of the cases, procedural violations and sentences;
• National investigation and prosecution of the denial of the right to a fair trial as a war crime under Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: status update, evidentiary challenges and the profile of perpetrators; 
• Prospect for investigating and prosecuting the denial of the right to a fair trial as a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions (war crime) and the crime of persecution (crime against humanity).

Remarks

• Mr. Oleksandr Kapustin, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN Office and other International Organizations in Geneva

Speakers: 

• Mr. Maksym Butkevych, human rights advocate, journalist, and POW who spent over 2 years in Russian captivity and was wrongly convicted (Ukraine)
• Ms. Tetiana Pechonchyk, Head of Board, the Human Rights Centre ZMINA (Ukraine)
• Ms. Lyubov Smachylo, Head of the Analytical Department, the Media Initiative for Human Rights (Ukraine)
• Mr. Serghei Ostaf, LLM, MSc. Policy, MBA: Director, the Resource Center for Democracy and Human Rights (Moldova)

Moderator: Mr. Dave Elseroad, Head of Advocacy and Geneva Office, the Human Rights House Foundation

Organisers of the event: the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, the Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR), the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN Office and the other International Organizations in Geneva, the Permanent Mission of Croatia to the UN Office and the other International Organizations in Geneva along with the support of the Permanent Missions of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Denmark, Albania, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, The Netherlands and Belgium to the UN Office and the other International Organizations in Geneva.