Statement on the 12th anniversary of Crimea’s resistance to Russian occupation

The occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation (RF) has been ongoing since 2014. For 12 years, the residents of the peninsula have been living under systemic human rights violations and international crimes. For 12 years, they have faced repression and persecution for the blue-and-yellow colors, cultural assimilation, militarization, the eradication of their national identity, and coercion to serve the imperial ambitions of the aggressor state. Yet for these 12 long years they have resisted, standing for their dignity and freedom.

On the Day of Crimean Resistance to the Russian occupation, the Human Rights House Crimea, its member organizations, and the Human Rights House Foundation reaffirm their commitment to protecting human rights, fundamental freedoms, and the dignity of all persons on the peninsula.

The situation in occupied Crimea continues to deteriorate. Reports by international organizations, monitoring bodies, and member organizations of the Human Rights House Crimea indicate ongoing violations:

• Suppression of political, civil, economic, social, and cultural rights: persecution of individuals for their pro-Ukrainian stance and activism, restrictions on the right to a fair trial, the risk of losing property and businesses for refusing to obtain Russian documents, limited access to quality medical care, blocking opportunities to study the Ukrainian language and culture, the destruction of Crimean Tatar cultural heritage, and a range of other violations.
• Forced passportization and demographic changes: the occupying authorities introduced the compulsory issuance of Russian passports as a prerequisite for accessing basic rights and services, such as visiting a doctor or attending school, while simultaneously implementing a policy of forcibly altering the demographic composition of the peninsula through the resettlement of Russians and the displacement of Ukrainians.
• Forced conscription: between 2015 and 2025, the RF conducted 22 draft campaigns on the peninsula, recruiting at least 53,000 individuals into its armed forces in violation of international law.
• Unlawful deportation and forced transfer, forcible transfer of children to families of citizens of the RF: orphaned children from the occupied Crimean Peninsula were among the first to suffer from illegal adoptions by Russian citizens, which were accompanied by their removal to Krasnodar Krai, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Zabaykalsky Krai, the Republic of Adygea, Leningrad Oblast, and Moscow Oblast. Over the past 12 years, through the “Train of Hope” and “Fly to a Child” programmes, around 1,000 children may have ended up in the RF, where they continue to be raised as Russian patriots. Not a single child unlawfully deported by Russian citizens under this scenario has been returned to their homeland to date. Impunity for these unlawful actions ultimately contributed to a significant increase in their scale after the start of the full-scale invasion, turning occupied Crimea into a “transit hub” from which Ukrainian children – primarily from Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions – were unlawfully deported to Russia.

Not a single child unlawfully deported by Russian citizens under this scenario has been returned to their homeland to date. Impunity for these unlawful actions ultimately contributed to a significant increase in their scale after the start of the full-scale invasion, turning occupied Crimea into a “transit hub” from which Ukrainian children – primarily from Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions – were unlawfully deported to Russia.

• Militarization and political indoctrination of children: over 12 years of occupation, the RF has built a system of political indoctrination and militarization of children through formal and non-formal education, children’s and youth movements, military-patriotic clubs, and a network of camps. During the period of occupation, the number of cadet classes increased 102-fold: from 3 in 2015 to 306 in 2025. This demonstrates the systematic and deliberate expansion of militarized education as a tool of influence by the RF over children living in the temporarily occupied territories. In addition, the number of children recruited by the RF into paramilitary movements has also grown. The membership of the Yunarmiya increased from 1,500 participants in 2017 to over 14,500, while in the city of Sevastopol it rose from 40 participants in 2016 to more than 17,000.
• Instrumentalization of the education system and blocking access to Ukrainian education: Russia has not only changed educational standards to its own, in violation of international humanitarian law, but has also fully instrumentalized and politicized the educational environment. In the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, education has ceased to perform its core function and has instead become a tool for cultivating a loyal population and promoting war and service in the Russian army. At the same time, Ukrainians residing on the peninsula are deprived of the opportunity to study the Ukrainian language and are denied access to Ukrainian education. Ukrainian websites are blocked even when using VPNs, and those who nevertheless manage to access Ukrainian education risk facing harassment, threats, and liability for their position.
• Persecution of Crimean residents with a pro-Ukrainian position, journalists, activists, human rights defenders, lawyers, and religious communities continues: people on the peninsula are routinely subjected to arbitrary detention and torture, including the denial of medical care in detention, unfair trials on politically motivated charges, and unlawful transfers to the territory of the RF, sometimes thousands of kilometers away from their native Crimea. In particular, 17 Crimean media representatives are currently behind bars, their only “crime” being reporting the truth. The occupying authorities are not deterred by critical health conditions (98 political prisoners require medical assistance), vulnerable circumstances (around 40 political prisoners are women, including mothers of multiple children), or advanced age (more than 20 political prisoners are over 60 years old).
• Systemic violations of the rights of the Indigenous peoples of Ukraine in Crimea: the marginalization and displacement of Indigenous peoples from the peninsula’s public and civic life constitute a deliberate policy. The Crimean Tatars, as one of the Indigenous peoples of the peninsula, have for twelve years been subjected to systematic and disproportionate persecution by the occupying authorities: of at least 284 victims of politically motivated persecution, 159 are Crimean Tatars. Searches (up to 70% of which were conducted in the homes of Crimean Tatars), detentions, and criminal proceedings on charges of “extremism” or “terrorism” are used as instruments to suppress dissent and resistance, while the practice of unlawfully transferring victims of politically motivated persecution of Crimean Tatar origin is qualified as a form of illegal deportation. The right of Indigenous peoples to self-identification, including the ability to establish their own representative institutions and self-governing bodies, has effectively been eliminated. The occupying authorities exert pressure on Crimean Tatar religious communities and Muslim organizations, restricting freedom of religion and cultural activities. At the same time, opportunities for education in and public use of the Crimean Tatar language are being curtailed.
• The use of Crimea as a place of detention for abducted civilians: occupied Crimea continues to serve as a prison for civilians abducted by the Russian authorities in the newly occupied territories, in particular in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Among those detained are orphaned children who were raised at the Kherson Regional Infant Care Home.
• Destruction and looting of Ukraine’s cultural heritage: from 2014 to 2026, the RF issued at least 1,659 permits to Russian archaeologists to conduct illegal archaeological works at immovable cultural heritage sites in the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. Of these, 152 permits – including for 24 archaeological expeditions – were issued in 2025 alone. Archaeological works were carried out by researchers from the Institute of Archaeology of Crimea of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Hermitage Museum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Kherson State Pedagogical University, and other institutions. Since 2017, the RF has damaged more than 9,000 square meters of cultural layers and unlawfully appropriated over 10,000 artefacts. In 2025, 55 fragments of ancient ceramics were removed from the Kerch Museum-Reserve to Nizhny Novgorod, and 117 collection items from Tauric Chersonese were transferred to the Museum of History of Yekaterinburg.
• The use of Crimea as a military base for attacks: the RF launches missiles and drones from occupied Crimea and the Black Sea. This results in civilian casualties in Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, poses a serious threat to regional security in the Black Sea basin, and causes damage to the Black Sea ecosystem.

These violations have continued since 2014 and have only intensified in 2025, despite international condemnation. This underscores the urgent need for the international community to take action to address the escalating human rights crisis in Crimea and to hold the Russian Federation accountable for its actions.

We call on the international community to:

• Support the residents of the peninsula who resist the occupation, including journalists, activists, human rights defenders, political prisoners, and their families.
• Make every effort to secure the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners held in Crimea, including Tofik Abdulhaziiev, Bohdan Ziza, Iryna Danylovych, Appaz Kurtamet, and Halyna Dovhopola; to ensure their immediate access to adequate medical care; to guarantee access to their places of detention for international monitoring mechanisms, including by the ICRC. To put an end to political repression, religious persecution, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, and judicial abuse under occupation.
• Facilitate the safe return and reintegration of deported Ukrainians, including children and other vulnerable groups, with the full restoration of their rights and restitution of their property.
• Make efforts to stop the forced imposition of Russian identity, militarization, indoctrination, and re-education of Ukrainian children by insisting on the cessation of the use of Russian educational standards and teaching materials in temporarily occupied territories, as well as on ensuring access to Ukrainian education and the right of all Ukrainians to preserve and develop their culture, traditions, and identity.
• Demand that the occupying state comply with the norms of international humanitarian law, cease the forced passportization and unlawful conscription of residents of the occupied territories, halt the destruction and illegal appropriation of Ukrainian cultural heritage sites, and stop using Crimea as a military base for carrying out armed attacks against Ukraine.
• Strengthen targeted diplomatic, humanitarian, political, and economic measures aimed at ending human rights violations in the occupied territories, restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity, ensuring accountability of those responsible, and providing support to victims.
• Strengthen human rights monitoring mechanisms in the occupied territories, including by renewing the reporting mandate of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, with a focus on protecting vulnerable population groups, and ensure that civil society receives the necessary support to continue documenting crimes and violations.
• Expand and strengthen the mandate of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine by ensuring it has adequate resources, expanded access, and enhanced cooperation with the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and relevant UN mechanisms to comprehensively document human rights violations and international crimes.
• Demand that the RF comply with the decisions of international and regional courts, in particular the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights; support the International Criminal Court and its investigations into crimes committed by the RF against Ukraine; and activate the use of universal jurisdiction while promoting broad support for and the successful launch of the Special Tribunal for the investigation of the crime of aggression of the RF against Ukraine.
• Expand the mandate of the International Claims Commission for Ukraine to include, within the categories of compensable damages, those caused by the RF since 20 February 2014, in particular in occupied Crimea. This would help ensure justice for victims of violations committed prior to 24 February 2022.
• Support the work of the International Crimea Platform, the Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, the Platform for the Release of Civilians Illegally Detained by the RF, the Register of Damage, the International Claims Commission, and the Compensation Mechanism for victims since 2014.

We call on all UN Member States, international organizations, and civil society to take decisive action. Immediate, coordinated, and sustained measures are essential to address the escalating human rights violations and international crimes in occupied Crimea. Inaction will only fuel impunity and further breaches of international law. We urge global solidarity and concrete steps – justice and fundamental rights must be restored for the residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

Human Rights House Crimea

Human Rights House Foundation

Regional Center for Human Rights

Centre of Civil Education “Almenda”

Human Rights Centre ZMINA

Crimean Human Rights Group

CrimeaSOS

Crimean process