Situation of Human Rights in the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, Including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol

A/RES/78/221View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 71cHuman rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives, published in 2023.

What other versions does this mandate have?

3 versions · 2023–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/223

2025A/RES/80/223Situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of SevastopolLatestCompare with previous version
2024A/RES/79/184Situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of SevastopolCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/221Situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

10 topics

Aggression Annexation of Territory Crimea (Ukraine)Human Rights Human Rights Monitoring Human Rights Violations International Law Russian Federation Sevastopol (Ukraine)Ukraine

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

2 reports of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2024.

2024A/HRC/56/69Situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol report of the Secretary-General
2024A/79/258Situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

51 operative paragraphs

Condemns the failure of the Russian Federation to comply with the repeated requests and demands of the General Assembly, as well as with the orders of the International Court of Justice of 19 April 2017 on provisional measures in the case concerning the Application of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Ukraine v. Russian Federation), and of 16 March 2022 on provisional measures in the case concerning Allegations of Genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Ukraine v. Russian Federation);

Strongly condemns the continuing and total disregard by the Russian Federation for its obligations under international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, regarding its legal responsibility for the occupied territory, including the responsibility to respect Ukrainian law and the rights of all civilians;

Condemns in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine in violation of Article 2 (4) of the Charter, and the use of Crimea for this aim and to support the attempted illegal annexation of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions;

Demands that the Russian Federation immediately cease its war of aggression against Ukraine and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders;

Condemns violations and abuses of human rights law and international humanitarian law perpetrated by the Russian occupying authorities and entailing discrimination against the residents of the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine, including Crimean Tatars, as well as Ukrainians and persons belonging to other ethnic and religious groups;

Demands that the Russian Federation respect obligations under international law with regard to respecting the Ukrainian legislation in force prior to the temporary occupation;

Urges the Russian Federation:

To uphold all of its obligations under applicable international law;

To fully and immediately comply with the orders of the International Court of Justice of 19 April 2017 and of 16 March 2022;

To take all measures necessary to bring an immediate end to all violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law against residents of the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine, in particular reported discriminatory measures and practices, arbitrary detentions and arrests, violations and abuses within the framework of the filtration procedures, enforced disappearances, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, sexual and gender-based violence, including to compel apprehended persons to self-incriminate or “cooperate” with law enforcement, ensure fair trial, revoke all discriminatory legislation and hold accountable those responsible for those violations and abuses by ensuring the independent, impartial and effective investigation of all allegations;

To refrain from arresting or prosecuting residents of the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine for non-criminal acts committed or opinions expressed, including in social media comments or posts, and release all residents who have been arrested or imprisoned for such acts;

To respect the laws in force in Ukraine, repeal laws unlawfully imposed by the Russian Federation in the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine that allow for forced evictions and the confiscation of private property, including land, in violation of applicable international law, and respect the property rights of all former owners affected by previous confiscations;

To immediately release and allow the return to Ukraine, without preconditions, of Ukrainian citizens who were unlawfully detained, as well as those transferred or deported by the Russian Federation;

To disclose the number and identity of individuals deported from the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation and take immediate action to allow the voluntary return of such individuals to Ukraine;

To end the practice of placing detainees in solitary confinement cells as a method of intimidation;

To monitor and accommodate the medical needs of all Ukrainian citizens, including those unlawfully detained and convicted on politically motivated grounds in the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine and the Russian Federation and allow the monitoring of those detainees’ state of health and conditions of detention by independent international monitors and physicians from reputable international health organizations, including the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the International Committee of the Red Cross, and investigate effectively all deaths in detention;

To uphold the rights, in accordance with international law and until their release, of Ukrainian prisoners and detainees in the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine and in the Russian Federation, including those on hunger strike, and encourages it to respect the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) and the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules);

To address ongoing impunity and ensure that those found to be responsible for violations and abuses of human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law are held accountable before an independent judiciary;

To create and maintain a safe and enabling environment for journalists and media workers and citizen journalists, human rights defenders and lawyers to perform their work independently and without undue interference, including by refraining from travel bans, deportations, arbitrary arrests, detention and prosecution, and other restrictions on the enjoyment of their rights;

To respect, protect and fulfil freedom of opinion and expression, which includes the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers, enable a safe and enabling environment for independent media pluralism and ensure a safe and enabling environment for civil society organizations;

To respect freedom of opinion, association and peaceful assembly without discrimination on any grounds other than those permissible under international law, and freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief, without discrimination on any grounds, to lift discriminatory regulatory barriers prohibiting or limiting the activities of religious groups in the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine, including but not limited to parishioners of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Muslim Crimean Tatars and Jehovah’s Witnesses, and to permit unimpeded access, without any undue restrictions, to places of worship as well as gatherings for prayer and other religious practices;

To restore enjoyment of the rights of all individuals, without any discrimination based on origin or religion or belief, revoke the decisions that banned cultural and religious institutions, non-governmental organizations, human rights organizations and media outlets and restore enjoyment of the rights of individuals belonging to ethnic communities in the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine, in particular ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, including the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community;

To respect, protect and fulfil the right to be free from arbitrary or unlawful interference with a person’s privacy, family, home or correspondence;

To ensure that the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of association can be exercised by all residents of the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine in any form, including single-person pickets, without any restrictions other than those permissible under international law, including international human rights law, and without discrimination on any grounds, and to end the practices of abusing requirements of prior authorization for peaceful assemblies and issuing warnings or threats to potential participants in those assemblies;

To refrain from criminalizing the rights to hold opinions without interference and to freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly and quash all penalties imposed on residents of the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine for expressing dissenting views, including regarding the status of temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine and the unprovoked Russian war of aggression against Ukraine;

To ensure the availability of education in the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages, and stop the blocking of access to Ukrainian education;

To respect the rights of the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, revoke immediately the decision declaring the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People an extremist organization and banning its activities, repeal the decision banning leaders of the Mejlis from entering Crimea, repeal the sentences, including in absentia, against Crimean Tatars and their leaders and immediately release those arbitrarily detained, including the leaders of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, and refrain from maintaining or imposing limitations on the ability of the Crimean Tatars to conserve their representative institutions;

To stop the illegal drafting and mobilization of residents of the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine into the armed forces of the Russian Federation, stop pressure aimed at compelling residents of the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine to serve in the armed or auxiliary forces of the Russian Federation, as well as using propaganda, also targeted at children and through the education system, and ensure strict compliance with its international obligations as an occupying Power;

To end also the practice of criminal prosecution of inhabitants who resist conscription and mobilization into the armed or auxiliary forces of the Russian Federation;

To end the practice of deporting Ukrainian citizens from the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine for not taking Russian citizenship, stop transferring its own civilian population to the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine and end the practice of encouraging such transfers;

To immediately and unconditionally reverse the decision to simplify the procedure for obtaining citizenship of the Russian Federation for Ukrainian orphans or children left without parental care;

To provide to the relevant United Nations bodies and international organizations a comprehensive list of the names and whereabouts of all Ukrainian children who were forcibly transferred to the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine or deported to the Russian Federation, including on those who were subsequently adopted or transferred to foster families, in order to ensure that these children are provided protection and care in accordance with international law;

To cease forcible transfers or deportation of Ukraine’s children and other civilians and take all necessary steps with a view to their safe return and family reunification in line with the best interests of the child and in accordance with international law;

To cooperate fully and immediately with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, which must have safe, secure and unhindered access to the entire territory of Ukraine, including the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, and the Council of Europe on the situation of human rights in the territories of Ukraine under the control of or temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation;

To create the conditions, as well as provide the means, to allow for the voluntary, safe, dignified and unhindered return to their homes of all internally displaced persons and refugees affected by the temporary occupation of territories of Ukraine by the Russian Federation;

To stop the policy of forcibly changing the demographic, including ethnic, composition of the population and take the necessary measures aimed at halting the free migration to and settling of citizens of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine;

To ensure compliance with obligations under international law, including humanitarian law and the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, regarding the preservation of monuments of the cultural heritage of Ukraine in the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine, in particular regarding the Khan Palace in Bakhchysarai and the monument “The ancient city of Chersonese and its Chora”, to prevent and stop reported illegal archaeological excavations in Crimea and other temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, and the illicit transfer of cultural property of Ukraine outside the territory of Ukraine;

Calls upon the Russian Federation to address the substantive concerns and all recommendations highlighted in the reports of the Secretary-General and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as previous relevant recommendations from reports on the situation of human rights in Ukraine by the Office of the High Commissioner based on the work of the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine established to prevent further deterioration of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine;

Supports the efforts of Ukraine to maintain economic, financial, political, social, informational, cultural and other ties with its citizens in the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine in order to facilitate their access to democratic processes, economic opportunities and objective information;

Calls upon all international organizations and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, when referring to the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, in their official documents, communications, publications, information and reports, including with regard to statistical data of the Russian Federation or provided by the Russian Federation, as well as those placed or used on official United Nations Internet resources and platforms, to refer to “the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, and certain areas of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine, temporarily controlled or occupied by the Russian Federation”, and to refer to bodies of the Russian Federation and their representatives in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine as “occupying authorities of the Russian Federation”, and encourages all States and other international organizations to do the same;

Calls upon Member States to support human rights defenders in the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine and across Ukraine and to continue advocacy for the respect of human rights, including by condemning the violations committed by the Russian Federation in the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine at bilateral and multilateral forums;

Also calls upon Member States to engage constructively in concerted efforts, including within international frameworks and the International Crimea Platform, aimed at improving the human rights situation in the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine, as well as to continue to use all diplomatic means to press and urge the Russian Federation to comply with its obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law and to grant unimpeded access to the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine for established regional and international human rights monitoring mechanisms, in particular the human rights monitoring Mission in Ukraine and the Ukraine Monitoring Initiative of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe;

Condemns all attempts by the Russian Federation to legitimize or normalize its attempted illegal annexation of the territories of Ukraine, including the automatic imposition of citizenship of the Russian Federation, illegal election campaigns and voting, population census, forcible change of the demographic structure of the population and suppression of national identity;

Calls upon the international community to continue to support the work of the United Nations to uphold international human rights law and international humanitarian law in the territories of Ukraine temporarily controlled or occupied by the Russian Federation;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to seek ways and means, including through consultations with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant regional organizations, to ensure safe and unfettered access to Crimea and other territories of Ukraine temporarily controlled or occupied by the Russian Federation by established regional and international human rights monitoring mechanisms, in particular the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, to enable them to carry out their mandates;

Urges the Russian Federation to ensure the proper and unimpeded access of international human rights monitoring missions and human rights non-governmental organizations to the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine, including all places where persons may be deprived of their liberty, recognizing that the international presence and monitoring of compliance with international human rights law and international humanitarian law are of paramount importance in preventing further deterioration of the situation;

Decides to include the item entitled “The situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine” in the annual agenda of the General Assembly;

Requests the Secretary-General to remain actively seized of the matter, and to take all steps necessary, including within the Secretariat, to ensure the full and effective coordination of all United Nations bodies with regard to the implementation of the present resolution;

Also requests the Secretary-General to continue to provide his good offices and pursue his discussions relating to the matter, involving all relevant stakeholders and including the concerns addressed in the present resolution;

Further requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its seventy-ninth session on the progress made in the implementation of all provisions of the present resolution, including options and recommendations to improve its implementation, and to submit for consideration an interim report to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-sixth session, to be followed by an interactive dialogue, in accordance with Council resolution 53/30 of 14 July 2023;

Decides to continue its consideration of the matter at its seventy-ninth session under the item entitled “Promotion and protection of human rights”.

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