User:X0730420210/Malaysia Airlines Flight 17

European Court of Human Rights

On 10 July 2020, the Dutch government announced that it intended to take Russia to the European Court of Human Rights for "its role in the downing" of Flight MH17. By doing so, it said, it was "offering maximum support" to the individual cases already brought to the Court by the victims' families.

The case encompasses three inter-state applications: Ukraine v Russia (re Eastern Ukraine) 8019/16, Ukraine v Russia (II) 43800/14, and The Netherlands v Russia 28525/20 itself. Ukraine v Russia (re Eastern Ukraine) 8019/16 concerns Ukraine’s allegations of an “administrative practice” of continuous violations of a number of Articles of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which, among other complaints, included unlawful military attacks against civilians, such as the downing of flight MH17. The Netherlands v Russia 28525/20 pertains directly to Flight MH17, claiming that “the Russian Federation was responsible for the downing of Flight MH17, that it did not carry out an effective investigation and that its conduct following the downing of the aircraft caused intense pain and suffering to the victims’ next of kin.” The complaint alleges violations of Article 2 (right to life), Article 3 (prohibition of torture), and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the Convention.

ECtHR addressed the Russian government’s objections regarding the admissibility of the case, including the alleged failure to exhaust domestic remedies and the claim of lodging the complaints out of time. ECtHR found the Russian government had not demonstrated the availability of effective remedies domestically. The Court also acknowledged the exceptional circumstances surrounding the incident and the investigative efforts by the Netherlands, determining that the complaints were lodged within a reasonable time frame.

Ultimately, on January 25, 2023, the Court deemed the complaints admissible and that it could adjudicate the case against Russia since evidence had established that the separatist militias were "under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation" and that Moscow "had a significant influence on the separatists' military strategy."

It is worth noting that in December 2015, Russia adopted a federal law that expanded the Russian Constitutional Court’s jurisdiction to forbid compliance with the judgment of the ECtHR shall it find a ‘discovered contradiction’ between the Russian Constitution and an ECtHR judgment. This could, therefore, become relevant for the enforcement of the ECtHR’s judgment regarding the case concerning downing of flight MH 17.