Places of illegal detention in Eastern Ukraine during the military conflict 

Places of illegal detention in Eastern Ukraine during the military conflict
Content type:
Report
Publication date:
2016
Author / authors:
Volodymyr Shcherbachenko, Ganna Ianova, Olexandr Pavlichenko

Places of illegal detention in Eastern Ukraine during the military conflict

The armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine led to numerous gross and systemic violations of human rights on the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in particular the establishment of a network of illegal detention places by Ukrainian army and Russia-backed separatists. International human rights law and international humanitarian law prohibit arbitrary detention.

Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, applicable in both international and non-international armed conflicts, requires that persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed ‘’hors de combat’’ by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, whereas arbitrary deprivation of liberty is not compatible with this requirement.