Russia accused of violating human rights in Crimea

RUSSIA is committing “grave human rights violations” in Crimea, according to a report by the United Nations (UN).

The UN human rights agency said it has documented arbitrary arrests, torture and at least one extra-judicial execution in the region.

“There is an urgent need for accountability,” UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said. Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine after the country’s pro-russian leader was overthrown in 2014.

There was no immediate response from Russia to the report’s accusations. “Grave human rights violations, such as arbitrary arrests and detentions, enforced disappearances, ill-treatment and torture, and at least one extra-judicial execution were documented,” the report said.

It adds that there have been “intrusive law enforcement raids of private properties” which “interfered with (the) right to privacy”. The report, which said the human rights situation has “significantly deteriorated” in the region, noted that hundreds of prisoners were illegally transferred from Crimea to Russian jails.

It said civil servants were forced to renounce their Ukrainian citizenship or face losing their jobs, and condemned Moscow’s decision to replace Ukrainian laws with Russian ones.

“Education in Ukrainian has all but disappeared from Crimean schools,” the report added.

It is based on interviews conducted from mainland Ukraine, as human rights investigators were not permitted entry into the region.