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In its third report to the General Assembly, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine outlines its new findings concerning torture, sexual violence, attacks with explosive weapons that affected civilians and civilian objects, and attacks on energyrelated infrastructure.
For over two mandates, the Commission has consistently found that Russian authorities used torture, as a war crime and the corresponding human rights violation, against Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war, in the context of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Commission’s recent findings demonstrate that Russian authorities have committed torture in all provinces of Ukraine where areas came under Russian control and in the detention facilities investigated in the Russian Federation. This confirms that torture was widespread. Additional shared patterns in the way in which torture was committed showed that it was systematic. These patterns concern the categories of persons targeted, the commonality of methods employed, the aim for which torture was used, and the transposition of violent practices common in Russian Federation detention facilities to similar facilities in areas under Russian control in Ukraine.
The cases documented illustrate that Russian authorities have deployed or recruited personnel, who have acted in a coordinated manner and according to a division of labour in the commission of torture. Testimonies collected describe the involvement of officials of the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, as well as of Russian armed forces officers; witnesses referred to orders to commit torture and a prevailing sense of impunity.
Sexual violence as a form of torture has been prevalent in detention facilities held by Russian authorities and medical assistance to detainees has been often denied. The report outlines illustrative cases where Russian authorities committed sexual violence as a form of torture during detention, which amounts to torture.
The overall findings lead the Commission to consider that it has sufficient evidence to determine that the Russian authorities have acted pursuant to a coordinated state policy and have therefore committed crimes against humanity of torture.
Victims described the physical pain and trauma, with long-lasting or irreparable consequences, and emphasised the immense psychological challenges they face. The cases documented demonstrate an egregious and profound disregard, by the Russian authorities, for physical integrity and human dignity.
The Commission investigated explosive weapons attacks that struck civilians and civilian objects, including medical and cultural objects which are protected under international humanitarian law, on all sides of the frontline.
Continuous, massive waves of attacks carried out by the Russian Federation against Ukraine’s energy-related infrastructure have resulted in blackouts, at times affecting millions of civilians. The power cuts have, among other consequences, curtailed the enjoyment of the rights to health and education, with severe effects on children, older persons, persons living with a disability or a medical condition. Persons affected described feelings of distress, anxiety, and isolation, and the repercussions on their security and health.
In its conclusions, the Commission has reiterated the importance of judicial and nonjudicial accountability, while taking into account victims’ needs, to end the culture of impunity. Many victims have expressed a vital need for justice to be done.
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