Rape cases in ATO area go unreported – human rights activists

The cases of rape committed in eastern Ukraine go unreported in the country.  

This was stated by representatives of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), who actively cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The ICC Office of the Prosecutor pays special attention to crimes of sexual violence against women and men as well as slavery. Such crimes are committed during any military conflict and often drop out of sight.

“The problem of documenting the cases of sexual violence is very acute. Furthermore that the victims are not willing to talk about this, the society tends to marginalize such victims. Thus, we get the vicious circle which leads to greater impunity,” explains Oleksandra Kulayeva, Head of the FIDH department for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The human rights activist believes that it is necessary to enable the victims of such crimes to testify anonymously.

“Such crimes always occur in the places of month-long illegal deprivation of liberty without access of the public. There are hints and rumors about such crimes in Ukraine as well. Therefore, the state, which should have greater potential in the investigation, is obliged to investigate such hints and rumors and allow victims to testify anonymously or confidentially,” the Human Rights Information Centre correspondent quotes Oleksandra Kulayeva as saying.

The human rights activists point out that there are witnesses of sexual violence against men in Ukraine.

“I attended the presentation of the report “The Survivors of Hell” at the OSCE in Warsaw. The victims of such violence came there. One of the men told how he was held in the basement without light for 30 days. He witnessed the rape of one of the prisoners with vegetables. He did not know the victim’s name. This is a fact of torture, which also includes sexual abuse, bringing the offense to a serious level,” Oleksandra Kulayeva says.

In order to expose the sexual crimes more effectively, the human rights activists recommend adhering to gender balance in the investigative agencies, which Ukraine lacks now. Then such crimes are more likely to be recorded and investigated, the experts suggest. They also insist on the increase in human and financial resources to investigate the international crimes, to adapt the Ukrainian legislation to the Rome Statute and to set up mobile teams of the investigators from various regions of Ukraine.

Earlier, the FIDH human rights activists claimed that they saw no reason why Ukraine had not yet ratified the Rome Statute as Ukraine had already recognized the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.