Human Rights House Foundation statement
HRC61 – Item 4 – Interactive Dialogue – Ukraine COI
12 March 2026
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Thank you Vice-President.
The Commission’s findings have been essential in establishing an authoritative record, and in helping lay the groundwork for future accountability, and we urge the Council to renew its mandate this session.
Our Ukrainian civil society partners, including Crimean Human Rights Group, Zmina, and Crimea SOS, continue to document how Russian authorities in occupied territory use unlawful detention, enforced disappearance, torture, and fabricated criminal prosecutions against civilians, often under accusations such as terrorism, espionage, or sabotage. These violations are part of a broader system of repression in which the occupying power uses its own laws, courts, and institutions to create a false appearance of legality.
Our partners at Centre for Civic Education “Almenda” and the Regional Centre for Human Rights also continue to document the destruction of Ukrainian identity in occupied territory, including the indoctrination and militarisation of children. We note the Commission’s conclusion that the deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children, and the enforced disappearance of many of them, amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. These violations require sustained scrutiny and future accountability.
Vice-President,
We ask the Commission: how can its findings, together with the documentation of Ukrainian civil society, best advance various forms of accountability, including in relation to crimes against humanity committed in occupied territory?
Thank you.
