The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) declared violations by Ukraine of human rights during the events of the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-2014.
The decision was published on January 21 in the press release issued by the Registrar of the European Court of Human Rights.
The cases concerned events around the Maidan protests in Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine, including the dispersal of the protestors, their detention, the kidnapping of activists and their ill-treatment, and the related proceedings.
“The Court found in particular that the authorities had used ill-treatment deliberately and that the State had been responsible for the murder of one protester. It noted that many of the detention orders had been arbitrary. It considered that the authorities had deliberately tried to disrupt initially peaceful protests, using excessive violence and unlawful detention to achieve that. Overall, it noted that the abuses found appeared to have been a strategy on the part of the authorities. It also found that the investigations into the events had in many instances been ineffective,” as was said in the statement.
A press release indicates that the ECHR ruled unanimously that there were a number of violations of Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights, a number of violations of Article 5, clauses 1 and 3 (right to liberty and security), a number of violations of Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association), a violation of Article 2 (right to life), and violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life).
“The Court observed that it had found multiple violations of several Articles as a result of how the authorities had conducted themselves during the Maidan protests and the absence to date of an independent and effective mechanism within Ukraine for the investigation of crimes committed by law-enforcement officers and non-State agents. These judgments pointed to a deliberate strategy on the part of the authorities to hinder and put an end to a protest, the conduct of which was initially peaceful, with rapid recourse to excessive force which resulted in, if not contributed to, an escalation of violence,” ECHR stated in its overall resolution.