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“It is crucial to keep attention on the human rights situation in Ukraine”
26 August 2024
Danielle Bell is the Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), established in 2014 to monitor and report on the human rights situation in the country. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation on 24 February 2022, the mission has intensified its work documenting violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed by all parties to the conflict. Bell is a human rights specialist with more than two decades of experience, mainly leading UN human rights teams to monitor human rights in conflict and post-conflict settings.
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation is well into its third year. How would you describe the human rights situation in Ukraine?
The invasion is having an immense impact on the Ukrainian people. More than 10,000 civilians have been killed and more than 20,000 injured. Relentless attacks continue to destroy homes, hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. Entire neighbourhoods and villages have been destroyed. A major children’s hospital in Kyiv was recently attacked. Millions have been forced to flee, separating families. Summary executions, torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, and sexual violence have occurred with impunity. In the Russian Federation, the conflict has also affected increasing numbers of Russian civilians, and there has been destruction and damage of civilian infrastructure. It’s easy to become numb to the scale of these figures, but our public reports are not just statistics. Every single figure we report has a human story behind it, often with dreadful suffering.
How does the mission conduct its work in a situation of conflict?
Our teams are out in the field every day. We ask both sides for access to affected areas, and pursue the access we have to the largest extent we can. We're the only UN organization with a monitoring presence near the front line, which means we meet daily with people who are directly affected by the conflict. This allows us to keep a record as accurate, credible and reliable as possible of how the conflict is affecting civilians while also examining the broader human rights consequences. Last October, a missile struck a café in the small Ukrainian village of Hroza, killing 59 people attending a funeral reception. Within 36 hours, we were in Hroza, walking down every street, speaking to villagers, and collecting details on the circumstances of the attack, so we were able to ascertain that every person killed was a civilian, and then made an initial assessment of who was responsible and the legality of the attack. Besides our fieldwork, we provide technical advice to national human rights institutions and assist national authorities develop laws and policies that are in line with international human rights standards.
HRMMU was established with the aim of strengthening human rights protection in Ukraine, fostering access to justice, and ensuring that perpetrators of human rights violations are held to account. How is it contributing to accountability?
Our public reports are a critical tool for accountability because they put facts on public record. Ukrainian domestic courts, including the Constitutional Court, have relied on our reports for important rulings on human rights. International and regional bodies like the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights have also referenced our work in recent findings. Additionally, our database serves as an important historical record, laying the groundwork for future accountability and truth, justice and reparation processes
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We will continue our meticulous documentation to ensure that accountability one day will be a reality.
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DANIELLE BELL, HEAD OF UN HUMAN RIGHTS MISSION IN UKRAINE
HRMMU has been in the country since March 2014. How has the work changed?
HRMMU is the only international organization that has maintained a presence here for 10 years. Our work has evolved as the human rights situation has changed. For example, a recent report sets out the serious human rights and humanitarian law violations by the Russian Federation in the past 10 years since the occupation and illegal annexation of Crimea. Since the full-scale invasion, we've focused on protection of civilians in armed conflict, looking at some of the broader conflict trends such as conflict-related sexual violence or the effect of the conflict on children and women. But the core of our work has not changed: our focus on key human rights issues and where we can make an impact. For instance, HRMMU is the only UN entity monitoring and reporting on the collaboration trials conducted by the Ukrainian authorities, which has led to positive results. Notably, in recent months, HRMMU observed a continued downward trend in the number of cases in which Ukrainian courts convicted persons for “collaboration activities” for conduct that could, in principle, be lawfully compelled by the occupying Power.
UN Human Rights officers survey damage caused by a missile strike on a residential building in the city of Dnipro. © Vincent Tremeau/OHCHR
What recent trends in violations have you observed?
We have been seeing an alarming increase in civilian casualties since March this year, with July being the deadliest month for Ukraine’s civilians since October 2022. This surge is due to coordinated attacks launched by the Russian armed forces across Ukraine, including air strikes on a hospital complex in Kyiv, and the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, which are causing the most harm in territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine. Also, large-scale attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have drastically reduced the country’s electricity capacity, leading to daily power cuts for millions of people across Ukraine. These outages, often lasting many hours, limit access to water, mobile networks and internet, and public transportation, and disrupt children’s ability to study, as many in Ukraine attend school remotely. Those who will be most impacted are the vulnerable groups, especially older people and persons with disabilities. And in the Russian Federation, the conflict has recently led to large numbers of civilians displaced from their homes, with all the implications that has for peoples’ enjoyment of human rights.
What is the human rights situation of prisoners of war and civilian detainees?
Since February 2022, we have interviewed over 600 released Ukrainian civilian detainees and prisoners of war (POWs), including POWs who were freed from Russian captivity during recent exchanges in spring and summer. We have continued to document widespread and routine use of torture and ill-treatment against civilians and POWs by Russian authorities, with testimonies of survivors describing unimaginable cruelty. When it comes to Russian POWs in Ukrainian captivity, we have unfettered access to official places of internment from Ukrainian authorities. In these cases, we have documented accounts of torture at transit locations after their evacuation from the battlefield. What’s important to note is that we engage with Ukrainian authorities, and this engagement and advocacy is promoting change. When we publicly reported on torture and ill-treatment of Russian POWs and advocated on this issue with Ukrainian authorities, we observed improvements in their treatment and conditions of internment.
What are the main challenges of your work?
The number one challenge is that we do not have access to Ukrainian territory that is under control of the Russian Federation, or to affected parts of the Russian Federation itself, despite our repeated requests. We've had to be creative in the way we do our monitoring. For example, going near the front line and meeting with people who are living in areas that were previously under Russian occupation. We have a remote team that works out of Moldova, who are able to have confidential and secured communications with people living inside occupied territory. We also maintained a regular monitoring presence in Sumy, which until early August was the only open border crossing point with Russia, where people could leave occupied territory. My team interviewed people when they first crossed back into Ukraine. In March, we published a report based on more than 2,300 interviews with victims and witnesses, detailing widespread violations by the Russian Federation carried out during its efforts to consolidate its control over the population in occupied territory.
How do you counter misinformation? What methodology do you use?
HRMMU is considered an authoritative source due to our OHCHR rigorous methodology. Our reports are based on data collected and corroborated during field missions, detention visits, trial monitoring, in-person and remote interviews with victims, witnesses, relatives, lawyers, government representatives, and civil society, as well as information drawn from court documents, official records, videos, and photographs. In concrete terms, we rely on multiple, diverse sources, each meticulously assessed for credibility and reliability. We do not simply accept second-hand information or rely on internet searches and broadcast channels; our work is built on thorough, on-the-ground research.
How are staff doing their work in light of the situation?
Keeping staff safe is another major challenge. There is a war going on and people are at risk when they go near the front line. Staff are committed because they know their work is critical. Aside from the stress of hearing explosions and air sirens day in and day out, speaking to people about their suffering is hard. We speak with people every day when they are at their most vulnerable, witnessing dreadful suffering, which certainly takes a toll.
