Middlesex-based human rights lawyers represent Crimean orphans at hearing

The lawyers are representing ten children who were in childcare when Russia annexed Crimea and whose whereabouts are now unknown

Lawyers from the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), within Middlesex University’s School of Law, appeared before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) yesterday (September 22) in a landmark case concerning the enforced disappearance of Ukrainian children.

With its Ukrainian partner lawyer, Serghiy Zayets, EHRAC is representing ten children who were aged between one and five and deprived of parental care when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.  The children were living in Ukrainian state childcare institutions when Crimea came under Russian control. Russian citizenship was imposed on the children, and they were included on Russian adoption databases.

Their current whereabouts remain unknown, but there is credible evidence that at least four have been transferred to Russia and placed in Russian institutions or with Russian families. EHRAC is arguing that the children are victims of enforced disappearance.

The Russian authorities’ actions in Crimea are recognised as laying the groundwork for the wider deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. This issue has attracted international attention.   

The term ‘enforced disappearance’ refers to a complex crime which includes repeated and continuous violations of international law and a fundamental breach of human rights.

Enforced disappearances mean the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups acting with the authorisation, support or agreement of the State. This would be followed by a refusal to acknowledge their detention or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which places the victim outside the protection of the law.

Founded in 2003, EHRAC works with partners in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine to challenge serious human rights abuses before the ECHR and other international legal mechanisms. In 2013, EHRAC was incorporated at Middlesex University’s School of Law.

The independent human rights centre has mentored and collaborated with more than 100 lawyers from post-Soviet states. It has worked with lawyers in the region to represent more than 1400 applicants in 500 plus cases.

EHRAC and its partners have identified cases and developed innovative legal arguments to advance human rights at hearings. This partnership work has delivered landmark judgements in areas including gender-based violence, freedom of expression, judicial independence, surveillance, anti-terrorism and LGBTQI+ rights. 

Last year the human rights advocacy centre was involved a high-profile case at the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights which found that Georgia violated the human rights of 26 protestors and journalists who were injured in a 2019 protest. EHRAC has also been involved in cases involving secret mobile surveillance in Russia, and with Armenians that were branded 'enemies of the state' for speaking up for Eurovision winner Conchita.

You can watch a recording of the oral hearing on the Court’s website. 
At present, the date of the next hearing which will be the judgement has not been confirmed.