AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

BACKGROUND
Following a two-month political crisis, after
several reform-oriented politicians resigned
from top government positions alleging
widespread corruption, Parliament accepted
Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s resignation on 12 April.
He was replaced by Volodymyr Hroysman.
Sporadic fighting and exchange of fire
between government and Russia-backed
separatist forces continued. Gunfire, shelling
and unexploded ordnance continued to
cause civilian deaths and injuries. The UN
Human Rights Monitoring Mission estimated
that there were more than 9,700 conflictrelated
deaths, of which around 2,000 were
civilians, and at least 22,500 conflict-related
injuries since the beginning of the conflict in
2014.
The International Criminal Court (ICC)
published its preliminary examination of
Ukraine on 14 November. It concluded that
the “situation within the territory of Crimea
and Sevastopol amounts to an international
armed conflict between Ukraine and the
Russian Federation” and that “information…
would suggest the existence of an
international armed conflict in the context of
armed hostilities in eastern Ukraine”. An
amendment to the Constitution was passed in
June, postponing the ratification of the Rome
Statute of the ICC for an “interim period” of
three years.
The Ukrainian authorities continued to
heavily restrict the movement of residents of
the separatist-controlled Donetsk and
Luhansk regions to government-controlled
territory.
The Russian authorities held parliamentary
elections in Crimea, which were not
internationally recognized.
The conflict-affected economy started to
grow slowly: GDP increased by 1%. Prices of
basic commodities and services such as
heating and water continued to rise, adding
to the declining living standards of the
majority of the population. Living standards in
the separatist-controlled areas continued to
deteriorate.
TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT
Little progress was made in bringing to justice
law enforcement officials responsible for the
abusive use of force during EuroMaydan
protests in Kyiv in 2013-2014. The
investigation was marred by bureaucratic
hurdles. On 24 October, the Prosecutor
General reduced the staff and the powers of
the special department responsible for the
EuroMaydan abuses investigations, and
created a new unit to investigate only former
President Vyktor Yanukovych and his close
confidants.
The new State Investigation Bureau was
formally created in February to investigate
crimes committed by law enforcement
officials and the military, but the selection of
its head, on an open competition basis, was
not completed by the end of the year. 1
The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of
Torture (SPT) suspended its visit to Ukraine
on 25 May after the Security Service of
Ukraine (SBU) denied it access to some of its
facilities in eastern Ukraine where secret
prisoners were reportedly held as well as
tortured and otherwise ill-treated. The SPT
resumed and completed its visit in
September and produced a report which the
Ukrainian authorities did not give their
consent to publish.
ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE
Lawyer Yuriy Grabovsky went missing on 6
March and was found murdered on 25
March. Before his disappearance, Yuriy
Grabovsky complained of intimidation and
harassment by the Ukrainian authorities in an
attempt to make him withdraw from the case
of one of two alleged Russian servicemen
who were captured in eastern Ukraine by
government forces. During a press
conference on 29 March, the Chief Military
Prosecutor of Ukraine announced that two
suspects had been detained in connection
with Yuriy Grabovsky’s murder. At the end of
the year, they remained in pre-trial detention
and the investigation was ongoing. 2
376 Amnesty International Report 2016/17