ECHR rejects lawsuit in Russia v. Ukraine case – Justice Ministry
The European Court of Human Rights dismissed the claims in full in the case Russia v. Ukraine (No. 36958/21), the press service of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine said.
"This case arose on the basis of an application filed against Ukraine by the Russian government on July 22, 2021 under Article 33 (interstate cases) of the European Convention on Human Rights. This complaint by Russia is the only interstate complaint against Ukraine. It was filed on ten groups of charges," it said in a post released on Tuesday.
In this complaint, the aggressor country charged Ukraine with alleged administrative practices of "murders, kidnappings, forced relocation, interference with the electoral right, restrictions on the use of the Russian language and attacks on Russian embassies and consulates," the Russian Federation also tried to attribute responsibility to Ukraine for the MH17 crash, because that Ukraine "did not close the airspace."
In addition, Russia complained about the blocking of the North Crimean Canal and asked the ECHR to apply temporary measures, among them, to oblige Ukraine to resume water supply to the temporarily occupied Crimea and stop "harassment" in the use of the Russian language. However, the court immediately denied this.
Commissioner for ECHR Margarita Sokorenko said on July 23, 2021, the ECHR immediately rejected the request "for interim measures, clearly indicating that Russia did not provide evidence of 'a serious risk of irreparable harm to fundamental human rights under the European Convention."
In addition, Sokorenko said all the documents filed by Russia were in Russian, due to which the ECHR "repeatedly instructed to submit all documents in the official languages of its work, in English or French, however, Russia constantly delayed the provision of properly prepared documents."
In turn, Deputy JusticMinister Iryna Mudra said Russia's exclusion from the Council of Europe in March 2022 did not prevent the ECHR from deciding to continue considering cases against the aggressor country that were in its proceedings.
"The ECHR has given a clear signal that it will continue to administer justice," Mudra said.
"After a thorough examination by the Court of the materials and evidence submitted by the plaintiff state, as well as taking into account the behavior of Russia and the lack of any cooperation since March 2022, the ECHR refused to satisfy the claim in full and removed it from the register of cases," the ministry's press service said.