News

On 29 February 2024, 45 participating States of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), including Lithuania, following consultations with Ukraine initiated preparation of a new Moscow Mechanism report to address arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Ukrainian civilians, committed by Russia during their war of aggression against Ukraine.

“Ukrainian civilians have become victims of arbitrary detentions, abductions, kidnapping and other forms of arbitrary deprivation of liberty, including instances of enforced disappearances,” – participating States have stressed in their statement. States voiced deep concern about Russia’s actions towards civilian detainees, marked by the profound disregard for human dignity, including the use of torture, sexual violence, and ill-treatment. A particular alarm is raised by reports of cases of summary executions of civilians in Russian detention.

In accordance with this initiative, a mission of experts is invited to establish possible cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and other human rights violations, associated with or resulting from the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Ukrainian civilians by the Russian Federation.

This is a fourth time the Moscow Mechanism has been invoked to address possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine after the Russian Federation’s invasion. In cooperation with Ukraine, all European Union countries, including Lithuania, as well as Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Iceland, Montenegro, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Georgia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, have joined this initiative.

The statement of the participating State invoking the OSCE Moscow Mechanism is available here.