Ukrainians tortured, raped, executed by Russian captors, Human Rights Council hears

This article is published in association with United Nations.

The Human Rights Council on Wednesday heard gruesome testimony of torture, rape and execution of Ukrainian detainees and soldiers allegedly committed by Russian forces, as a high-level independent probe into Russia’s full-scale invasion delivered its latest mandated report in Geneva.

The Council – the UN’s foremost human rights forum – also heard updates on allegations of ongoing abuses in Belarus, North Korea and Myanmar.

According to the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, enforced disappearances of civilians committed by Russian authorities have been “widespread and systematic” and likely amount to crimes against humanity.

“Many persons have been missing for months or years and some have died,” said Erik Mose, Chair of the independent investigative panel, whose Commissioners are not UN staff nor paid for their work.

“The fate and whereabouts of many remain unknown, leaving their families in agonizing uncertainty.”

Detention agony for relatives, too

Requests from families of missing persons to Russian authorities for information about their relatives are typically met with unhelpful replies, while one young man was “detained and beaten when he went to the authorities to enquire about his missing girlfriend”, the Commission noted.

As in previous presentations prepared for the Human Rights Council, the Commission’s latest report contains equally disturbing findings about the use of torture by Russian authorities, panel member Vrinda Grover told journalists in Geneva:

“A civilian woman who had been raped during confinement in a detention facility held by Russian authorities stated that she pleaded with the perpetrators, telling them she could be their mother’s age, but they dismissed her saying,‘Bitch, don’t even compare yourself to my mother. You are not even a human. You do not deserve to live.’

“We have concluded that Russian authorities committed the war crimes of rape and sexual violence as a form of torture.”

Russian FSB connection

Ms. Grover noted that the Commissioners’ investigations confirmed that members of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) “exercised the highest authority. They committed or ordered torture at various stages of detention, and in particular during interrogations, when some of the most brutal treatment was inflicted”.

Challenged about the focus on alleged rights abuses by Russian authorities in their latest report, the Commissioners noted that they had detailed alleged violations committed by the Ukrainian forces “whenever we have found [them]”.

Communication breakdown

Commissioner Pablo de Greiff also noted that despite more than 30 requests for information from Russian authorities about possible Ukrainian attacks, “we have received absolutely none” and pointed to evidence of reprisals against supposed collaborators working with the Russian authorities.

Another aspect of the independent rights investigators’ report involves a growing number of incidents in which the Russian armed forces apparently killed or wounded Ukrainian soldiers who were captured or attempted to surrender.

“This constitutes a war crime,” Mr. de Greiff said, relaying the testimony of a former soldier who alleged that “a deputy brigade commander told the entire regiment, quote, ‘Prisoners are not needed, shoot them on the spot’.”

Russia was expelled from the Human Rights Council in 2022 by a two-thirds majority vote of the UN General Assembly following it full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Belarus crackdown on dissent

The Council also focused on allegations of continuing widespread rights abuses in Belarus, characterized by a crackdown on political dissent and freedom of expression, arbitrary detentions, torture and in-absentia trials.

Presenting its latest report to the forum in Geneva, the Group of Independent Experts on Belarus insisted that some of the violations it had investigated “amount to the crimes against humanity of political persecution and imprisonment”.

Chair of the panel, Karinna Moskalenko, mapped out detention facilities where torture or degrading treatment allegedly takes place. She regretted that she and her fellow independent investigators had been unable to access Belarus.

The group – comprising respected rights experts Susan Bazilli and Monika Stanisława Płatek, in addition to Ms. Moskalenko – also produced a list of individuals allegedly responsible for human rights violations since the disputed May 2020 presidential election that returned long-time President Alexander Lukashenko to power, prompting widespread public protests.

Widespread impunity and repression

Today in Belarus, hundreds of thousands of citizens and 1,200 political prisoners remain in detention, Ms. Moskalenko said, describing arbitrary arrests as “a permanent feature of the repressive tactics of Belarusian authorities”.

She said her group had gathered “ample evidence” that detainees serving short prison sentences “were systematically subjected to discriminatory, degrading and punitive conditions of detention” and in some instances “torture”.

Belarusians are being forced into exile for a string of reasons, the panel maintained, including an absence of truly democratic institutions, the lack of an independent judiciary, the perception of civil society as a threat and a culture of impunity.

Inside the country, 228 civil society organizations have been wound up, in addition to 87 entities and 1,168 persons added to “extremist” lists, Ms. Moskalenko added.

Council push-back

In response to the report, Belarus rejected all allegations of violations and torture.  

“This avenue is a dead-end for the Human Rights Council,” said Larysa Belskaya, Permanent Representative of Belarus to UN Geneva. “It is counterproductive to create any country mechanisms without the consent of the country affected.”

The representative said that 293 people had been pardoned in 2024 after confessing “crimes related to anti-state activity”.  

The country has also for three years run “a functioning commission reviewing requests from citizens abroad to regulate their legal situation in the country”, she added.

DPR Korea: Basic freedoms curtailed, amid prolonged isolation

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Elizabeth Salmón, expressed “serious concern” in her briefing to the council, pointing to the country’s prolonged isolation, lack of humanitarian assistance and increasing restrictions on basic freedoms.

Presenting her third report, she explained that these factors “have aggravated people’s human rights” in DPRK – more commonly known as North Korea – with the Government imposing “stricter laws” to curtail “rights to freedom of movement, to work, and to freedom of expression and opinion.”

‘Extreme militarisation policies’

In addition, recent reports suggest that the DPRK has deployed some of its troops to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, she added.

“While military conscription is not against international law, the poor human rights conditions of soldiers while in service in the DPRK plus the Government’s widespread exploitation of its own people raises several concerns,” Ms. Salmón warned.

Among them are Pyongyang’s “extreme militarisation policies” that are sustained through extensive reliance on forced labour and quota systems and that “only those loyal to the leadership” receive regular public food distribution at a time when over 45 percent of the population, 11.8 million people, are undernourished.

Myanmar: International funding cuts worsening crisis

Also on Wednesday, the independent human rights expert on Myanmar warned that the military junta continues its brutal crackdown, targeting civilians with airstrikes and forced conscription, while international aid cuts worsen an already dire humanitarian situation.

Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews told the council session that the junta is “steadily losing ground” but is lashing out in response, with civilians in the crosshairs.

“The junta has responded to these losses by instituting a military conscription program that includes grabbing young men off the streets or from their homes in the middle of the night,” he said.

He described airstrikes and bombing of hospitals, schools, camps for internally displaced persons, as well as religious gatherings and festivals.

“I have spoken with families who experienced the unspeakable horror of witnessing their children being killed in such attacks. Junta forces have committed widespread rape and other forms of sexual violence,” he added.

Adding to the crisis, funding cuts – most significantly from the United States – are severely impacting essential humanitarian aid.  

Mr. Andrews said the withdrawal of support is already having catastrophic consequences, including the closure of medical facilities and rehabilitation centers, as well as the termination of food and health assistance for the most vulnerable.

He urged the Human Rights Council “to do what others cannot” and help shore up the international aid and political support that “has made an enormous difference” in people’s lives.  

“The Human Rights Council has been called the conscience of the United Nations. I urge the member states of this body to speak out, to issue a declaration of conscience against this unfolding disaster.”

Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work.