Human rights defenders in crisis times: ZMINA made input to the CoE’s report

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović has released a report on a round-table with human rights defenders from across Europe, held in Dublin on 24 and 25 October 2022. During the event, participants discussed the deterioration of the situation of human rights defenders in Europe as a result of the surge of major and overlapping crises, such as armed conflicts, growth of inequality, global health crisis, the rise of populist governments and the advancement of anti-rights political agendas, and ways of activists’ support. Liudmyla Yankina from Human Rights Centre ZMINA joined the round-table and contributed to the creation of the report.

Report of human rights defenders in the Council of Europe area in times of crises

The round-table gathered several dozen human rights defenders from various parts of Europe, representatives of national and international NGOs, such as Human Rights Centre ZMINA, Human Rights Watch and Front Line Defenders. During the two-day meeting, the participants exchanged experiences and explored possible ways to overcome challenges, interacted with key stakeholders and mechanisms established to support human rights defenders, including Mary Lawlor, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Thórhildur Sunna Aevarsdóttir, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe General Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders, and Michel Forst, the Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention.

Reflecting the interventions of the participants, the report highlights how the prioritisation of national security and public safety concerns over human rights, in a context of overlapping crises, has hindered human rights defence and civic activism. Thanks to the input of Liudmyla Yankina from Human Rights Centre ZMINA, one of the sections directly addresses the situation of human rights defenders in the context of the war in Ukraine.

Photo: The New York Times

“The Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in a massive loss of human life, widespread destruction and immense human suffering. It has also had innumerable other disastrous consequences for all people living in Ukraine, inevitably affecting the enjoyment of virtually all human rights. In that extraordinarily difficult context human rights defenders have played a crucial role by saving lives,  providing humanitarian aid and documenting and addressing patterns of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law“, the report states.

It underlines that the war has the negative impact on the lives and personal safety of human rights defenders, especially as their work is often carried out in areas affected by active hostilities or remaining under the control or occupation of Russian or Russian-controlled forces. Hundreds of human rights defenders, journalists, volunteers and other civil society activists had lost their lives as a result of indiscriminate shelling, targeted attacks, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances. Many more human rights defenders and their relatives have been reported as either disappeared or abducted and detained incommunicado in areas of Ukraine under the control of Russian or Russian-controlled troops. Many have reported having been subjected to interrogation, intimidation, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment in order to extract self-incriminating statements whilst in detention.

Photo: The New York Times

Moreover, human rights defenders who continue to operate in areas affected by the hostilities often lack personal protective and communication equipment, adequate financial support and technological assistance when documenting human rights violations. Furthermore, the recurring large-scale attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure means that a lack of regular access to electricity and means of communication, including internet access, continue to impair the vital work of many human rights defenders.  

In the view of above, the participants and the Commissioner stressed that all persons who have been arbitrarily deprived of their liberty should be released immediately and that all cases of enforced disappearance, arbitrary or incommunicado detention and ill-treatment should be duly investigated and those responsible held accountable. The international community has to continue to support Ukrainian human rights defenders by all the neccessary means and to ensure they can continue to carry out their indispensable work. 

Read the full report here.