Human Rights Abuses in Russian-Occupied Crimea

Overview

In March 2014, Russia forcefully and illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula from the territory of Ukraine. Crimea’s residents have since faced increasingly grave civic, political, and human rights violations. At the same time, the Kremlin has sought to suppress reporting of many such abuses.

This report, by Ukrainian journalist Andrii Klymenko, chief editor of Black Sea News, documents the alarming deterioration of human rights in Crimea. It highlights the Kremlin’s repressive policies against three groups in particular: ethnic, religious, or national groups that opposed the annexation, especially members of the indigenous Crimean Tatar community; independent voices seeking to report on the situation in Crimea (journalists, civil society activists, and members of NGOs); and holders of Ukrainian passports.

Commissioned jointly by Freedom House and the Atlantic Council, the report provides a window into the lives of Crimea's residents in the year since Russia's occupation began.

In March 2014, Russia forcefully and illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula from the territory of Ukraine. Crimea’s residents have since faced increasingly grave civic, political, and human rights violations. At the same time, the Kremlin has sought to suppress reporting of many such abuses.

This report, by Ukrainian journalist Andrii Klymenko, chief editor of Black Sea News, documents the alarming deterioration of human rights in Crimea. It highlights the Kremlin’s repressive policies against three groups in particular: ethnic, religious, or national groups that opposed the annexation, especially members of the indigenous Crimean Tatar community; independent voices seeking to report on the situation in Crimea (journalists, civil society activists, and members of NGOs); and holders of Ukrainian passports.

Commissioned jointly by Freedom House and the Atlantic Council, the report provides a window into the lives of Crimea's residents in the year since