UN Report: Russia Responsible for Crimes Against Humanity in Occupied Ukraine

On 11 March 2025, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine (IICIHR) presented its third mandate report (A/HRC/58/67) to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

This is the most comprehensive study to date concerning violations of international law in the context of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Submitted during the Council’s 58th session and based on Resolution 55/23 extending the Commission’s mandate, the report is dated 11 March 2025, making it the first full assessment covering three complete years of Russia’s invasion.

The Commission is chaired by Erik Møse, former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and includes transitional justice expert Pablo de Greiff and human rights lawyer Vrinda Grover.

The team compiled extensive evidence: 1,780 interviews (929 with women and 851 with men), numerous expert assessments, medical documentation, photographs, and video recordings. The Commission emphasized that its work was conducted according to principles of independence, impartiality, and a victim-centered approach. Ukrainian authorities cooperated with the investigation, whereas the Russian Federation refused to recognize the body and ignored 31 written requests for access to information and territory.

Based on the evidence gathered, the Commission unequivocally concluded that Russian authorities committed crimes against humanity, primarily enforced disappearances and the systematic use of torture carried out as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population,” implemented in accordance with a coordinated state policy.

The investigation covered a verified sample of nearly 100 enforced disappearance cases, hundreds of testimonies concerning torture, and numerous accounts of sexual violence. The report also recorded an escalation in the execution of prisoners of war and the deportation of civilians from occupied territories to Russia. According to the Commission, the scale, regularity, and patterned nature of actions by Russian state organs—from the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation to the Investigative Committee of Russia—indicate a deliberate policy by authorities in Moscow aimed at subjugating the Ukrainian population through terror.

In light of these findings, the IICIHR calls on the international community to continue and intensify accountability mechanisms, both before the International Criminal Court and through the exercise of universal jurisdiction by third states. The Commission stresses that impunity for crimes committed against civilians poses a direct threat to the international legal order as a whole.

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