Ukraine appoints mission of experts following invocation of the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism

On 3 March 2022 and following consultation with Ukraine, 45 OSCE participating States invoked  the Moscow Mechanism in order to “address the human rights and humanitarian impacts of the Russian Federation’s invasion and acts of war, supported by Belarus, on the people of Ukraine, within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders and territorial waters.” More specifically, the tasks of the mission of experts will include those outlined below.*

In accordance with the Moscow Document, Ukraine selected three people from the list of experts to be part of the mission.

The Moscow Mechanism, last invoked in 2020 to examine alleged human rights violations in Belarus, provides the opportunity for participating States to send missions of experts to assist in the resolution of a particular question or problem relating to the human dimension. Further information is available here.

Any information relevant to the work of the Moscow Mechanism can be sent to the following email address: [email protected]. This will be forwarded to the expert mission.

The 45 countries that have invoked the Moscow Mechanism on this occasion are: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

* 1) Establish the facts and circumstances surrounding possible contraventions of OSCE commitments, and violations and abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law; 2) Establish the facts and circumstances of possible cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including due to deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure; and to collect, consolidate, and analyze this information with a view to presenting it to relevant accountability mechanisms, as well as national, regional, or international courts or tribunals that have, or may in future have, jurisdiction.