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Since early 2018, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has been paying particular attention to the issue of civic space and fundamental freedoms in Ukraine. OHCHR notes a lack of accountability in most of the documented cases of attacks against journalists and other media professionals, civic and political activists, and defence lawyers. As long as such impunity remains unaddressed, space for the promotion and protection of fundamental freedoms is at risk.

This briefing note summarizes the developments in investigations and prosecutions of the killings and violent deaths 98 individuals (96 men, including one boy, and two women) during Maidan protests and offers recommendations to address shortcomings in administering justice for these crimes.

This twenty-fourth report on the situation of human rights in Ukraine by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is based on the work of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), and covers the period from 16 August to 15 November 2018.

1. The General Assembly, in paragraph 7 of its resolution 72/190 on the situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine, requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare, by the end of its seventy-second session, the second dedicated thematic report on the situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine. 2. Pursuant to that request, the report of the Office of the High Commissioner is made available, in the language of submission only, in a conference room paper (A/HRC/39/CRP.4).

The present report is submitted pursuant to United Nations General Assembly resolution 72/190 which requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to prepare a dedicated thematic report on the “situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine” (hereinafter “Crimea”). This is the second report of OHCHR on Crimea mandated by the General Assembly. This report analyzes cases of international human rights and humanitarian law violations documented in Crimea between 13 September 2017 and 30 June 2018.