Human Rights House Foundation statement
HRC60 – Item 10 – Interactive Dialogue – Ukraine
3 October 2025
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We welcome the High Commissioner’s continued reporting on the grave situation across Ukraine, including in occupied Crimea.
Over a decade of occupation has produced a total eradication of civic space; what our partner, the Crimean Human Rights Group, rightly calls a “prison” for the peninsula’s residents.
Recent documentation confirms at least 284 Ukrainian civilians from Crimea remain in detention or prison on politically motivated charges, among them at least 25 women, including 19-year-old Yulia Sokolova, sentenced to nine years in prison on fabricated charges of espionage and treason. Dozens more Crimean Tatars are persecuted in the so-called “Case of Crimean Muslims,” with 109 people currently imprisoned, almost always on the basis of forced confessions and unfair trials.
Journalists remain particular targets. At least 17 Crimean journalists are in detention, including Server Mustafaiev and Iryna Danylovych, who continues to be denied urgent medical treatment.
Meanwhile, Russia systematically uses Crimea as a platform for war crimes: forcible transfers of detainees into Russia; unlawful conscription, with at least 613 cases recorded since 2014; and mass drone and missile strikes launched from the peninsula against civilian targets across Ukraine.
President.
We ask the High Commissioner’s office whether they receive any updates on any of the Crimean journalists in detention or prison?
Thank you.
