The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found the aggressor state, Russia, guilty in the case of the downing of flight MH17 over Donetsk Oblast, as well as in cases concerning human rights violations during the war against Ukraine starting in 2014, reports European Pravda.
The court’s decision was announced on July 9. The Russian side was absent, as it had been in previous hearings.
The case combines four inter-state complaints against Russia filed by Ukraine and the Netherlands. The court concluded, in particular, that flight MH17 was shot down over Donbas by a Russian Buk surface-to-air missile system, and that Russia bears responsibility for it.
Overall, the court issued a ruling on the following cases:
Ukraine v. Russia (No. 8019/16) — concerning human rights violations during the war in Donbas, including the downing of MH17 and the use of torture in the occupied territories of Ukraine;
Ukraine v. Russia (No. 43800/14) — regarding the abduction and unlawful transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia in 2014;
Netherlands v. Russia (No. 28525/20) — concerning the downing of flight MH17;
Ukraine v. Russia (No. 11055/22) — concerning human rights violations during the full-scale invasion.
The ECHR unanimously ruled that it has jurisdiction over these complaints, despite Russia’s expulsion from the Council of Europe.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice confirmed the court’s decision, calling it historic. According to the statement, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights upheld nearly all of the Ukrainian government’s complaints against the Russian Federation.
“This ECHR ruling is unprecedented and can already be considered one of the most significant in the practice of inter-state cases. The court not only confirmed the systematic and large-scale human rights violations committed by the Russian Federation since 2014 in the occupied territories of Ukraine and during the full-scale aggression, but also outlined a broader legal context,” the ministry stated.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 operating flight MH17 from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) was shot down over occupied territory in Donetsk Oblast on July 17, 2014. All 298 people on board were killed.
