The reports of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA were used as evidence in the ECtHR case “Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia”

On 9 July 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its decision in the case “Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia”, which became one of the most anticipated and important decisions in the history of international justice regarding Russian aggression against Ukraine. In this decision, which covers the period from 2014 to September 2022, Russia was found responsible for numerous violations of human rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. Among other materials, the court refers, in particular, to four analytical reports prepared by the Human Rights Centre ZMINA.

In total, the court delivered decisions on the following cases:

• Ukraine v. Russia (No. 8019/16) — concerning human rights violations during the war in the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions — from 11 May 2014 to 26 January 2022, through illegal armed formations under its control, including the downing of MH17 and torture in the occupied territories of Ukraine;
• Ukraine v. Russia (No. 43800/14) – abduction and illegal transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia in 2014;
• The Netherlands v. Russia (No. 28525/20) — downing of flight MH17;
• Ukraine v. Russia (No. 11055/22) — human rights violations during the full-scale invasion from 26 January to 16 September 2022.

The court concluded that the actions of the Russian Federation constituted administrative practice, i.e. systematic, large-scale human rights violations.

The ECtHR ruled, in particular:

• Russia must immediately release or safely return all persons who were deprived of their liberty during the occupation in violation of Article 5 of the Convention and are still in detention;
• Russia must cooperate in the establishment of an international and independent mechanism for the identification and reunification with their families of all children who were forcibly transferred from Ukraine before 16 September 2022.

The ECtHR decision refers four times to analytical reports by the Human Rights Centre ZMINA. In particular, the following materials were used:

• Analytical note “Deportation of Ukrainian citizens to the territory of the Russian Federation: signs and context” (April 2023).
• Analytical note “Forcible transfer and deportation of children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation” (April 2023).
• Report “Enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions of active citizens during the full-scale armed aggression by Russia against Ukraine” (February 2022 – June 2023).
• Analytical note “Deportation of residents of Kherson region: organised and independent departure under coercion” (4 July 2023).

The authors and editors of this research are members of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA team: Legal Analyst Onysiia Syniuk, Advocacy Director Alena Lunova, Human Rights Expert Nataliia Okhotnikova, Researcher and Analyst Borys Petruniok, Project Manager Oleh Hnatiuk, and Human Rights Advisor of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) Mariia Kvitsinska. Some of the cases used in the research were collected by documenter Nadiia Dobrianska and journalist Elina Sulima. The data for the reports was collected in cooperation with the Ukraine 5AM Coalition. The preparation of the reports was supported by Freedom House Ukraine and UCBI (Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative).

In addition, in the aforementioned decision, the ECtHR used the research “Deportation of Ukrainian citizens from the territory of active military operations or from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine to the territory of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus,” prepared by the Ukraine 5AM Coalition.

“This ECtHR decision – which is far-reaching and historic – is an important step towards justice for the victims of Russian aggression and for all victims of human rights violations since 2014. At the same time, it serves as a reminder of the enormous price Ukraine has already paid and the responsibility that Russia still has to bear. The decision will also have an impact on the assessment of events in many other international courts,” commented the Head of the Board of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, Tetiana Pechonchyk.

According to her, the work carried out by Ukrainian human rights organisations has made an important contribution to the evidence base used by the ECtHR.

ECtHR judgment text: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-238424

Annex to the judgment with the list of sources used: https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/HUDOC-8019-16-Annex-B-ENG.pdf

As a reminder, ZMINA previously reported that on 25 June 2024, the ECtHR delivered its decision on the merits in the inter-state case “Ukraine v. Russia (re Crimea)” — the first of four inter-state cases against Russia in connection with its attack on Ukraine. The Strasbourg court unanimously found that the Russian Federation had massively and systematically violated human rights in Crimea. This decision also used materials from the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, including a joint research with the Crimean Human Rights Group, which documented more than 350 cases of persecution of journalists by Russia in occupied Crimea.

On 16 July, ZMINA, together with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, is holding a discussion on “The ECtHR decision in the inter-state case of Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia and its significance for the protection of the rights of victims of Russian aggression” with the participation of experts from human rights organisations.