Policy brief on the use of the Russian criminal justice system to convict for military resistance to occupation
Source: MIHR
On February 20, 2014, the Russian Federation launched an attack against Ukraine, followed by the military occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. From the very first days of the occupation, the Russian Federation began to reshape Ukrainian law enforcement agencies and the judicial system in accordance with its own legislation. Based on data collected in 2022, the Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR) prepared an analytical report titled “The Quasi-Legal System in the Occupied Territories: Implementation and Spread of Practices,” covering the period from 2014 to 2022 and addressing the formation of the judicial system in the occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The purpose of this IHRI analytical report is to demonstrate how Russia deliberately deprives defendants of judicial guarantees established by the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I within the framework of criminal prosecution.
The Russian military occupation of part of Ukraine’s territory constitutes an international crime, specifically the crime of aggression. Furthermore, the occupation took place in violation by Russia of the Fourth Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land (The Hague, October 18, 1907) and its annex, as well as the Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (hereinafter “GC IV”), particularly regarding the preservation of Ukrainian legislation and the Ukrainian judicial and law enforcement systems in the occupied territories.
Only in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions was there a transitional period from 2014 to 2022, during which Ukrainian legislation was gradually replaced by Russian legislation, which was implemented on the basis of decisions by the self-proclaimed authorities of the so-called “L/DNR.”
In Crimea and certain districts of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, the transformation of the Ukrainian judicial and law enforcement systems occurred with the establishment of effective control over the occupied territory and general control over the population.
The memo presents arguments that Russia’s unjust imposition of severe punishments is not a miscarriage of justice, but rather the result of the implementation and maintenance of a large-scale and systematic government policy of criminal prosecution.
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On February 20, 2014, the Russian Federation launched an attack against Ukraine, followed by the military occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. From the very first days of the occupation, the Russian Federation began to reshape Ukrainian law enforcement agencies and the judicial system in accordance with its own legislation. Based on data collected in 2022, the Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR) prepared an analytical report titled “The Quasi-Legal System in the Occupied Territories: Implementation and Spread of Practices,” covering the period from 2014 to 2022 and addressing the formation of the judicial system in the occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The purpose of this IHRI analytical report is to demonstrate how Russia deliberately deprives defendants of judicial guarantees established by the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I within the framework of criminal prosecution.
The Russian military occupation of part of Ukraine’s territory constitutes an international crime, specifically the crime of aggression. Furthermore, the occupation took place in violation by Russia of the Fourth Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land (The Hague, October 18, 1907) and its annex, as well as the Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (hereinafter “GC IV”), particularly regarding the preservation of Ukrainian legislation and the Ukrainian judicial and law enforcement systems in the occupied territories.
Only in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions was there a transitional period from 2014 to 2022, during which Ukrainian legislation was gradually replaced by Russian legislation, which was implemented on the basis of decisions by the self-proclaimed authorities of the so-called “L/DNR.”
In Crimea and certain districts of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, the transformation of the Ukrainian judicial and law enforcement systems occurred with the establishment of effective control over the occupied territory and general control over the population.
The memo presents arguments that Russia’s unjust imposition of severe punishments is not a miscarriage of justice, but rather the result of the implementation and maintenance of a large-scale and systematic government policy of criminal prosecution.
View document ➚
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