Increasing numbers of survivors of torture and sexual violence inflicted by Russian forces in Ukraine need further support from Ukrainian authorities to improve how the country’s justice system documents crimes and supports survivors, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said today.
A new PHR policy brief (Supporting Survivors of Torture and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Ukraine: How to Improve Medico-Legal Documentation and Access to Justice) details how Ukrainian officials and their partners can address challenges to medico-legal documentation of human rights violations in ways that center survivors’ well-being, autonomy, and access to remedies.
Russian forces have perpetrated widespread torture and sexual violence since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Domestic agencies, led by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, and international actors have launched legal investigations into these abuses. However, barriers to survivor-centered documentation threaten to impede justice efforts by deterring survivors from coming forward.
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PHR’s new policy brief argues that to achieve accountability and healing, effective laws, policies, and protocols must be in place in Ukraine to guide rigorous documentation and investigation of torture and conflict-related sexual violence. While recognizing the considerable efforts by the Ukrainian government to date, the brief calls on officials to expand the pool of qualified clinical professionals who can conduct medico-legal investigations as well as to support survivors through trauma-informed approaches to documentation and justice.
“Ukrainian officials now have a prime opportunity to build on their progress and reform systems so that survivors of torture and conflict-related sexual violence can access care, support, and justice. The practical recommendations we offer can transform the experiences of survivors as they seek remedies. Through trauma-informed and survivor-centered approaches, Ukraine’s justice system can empower the Ukrainians who have endured violence while working to hold perpetrators of these crimes to account,” said Uliana Poltavets, policy brief co-author and PHR’s Ukraine emergency response coordinator.
The policy brief will be launched at an event in Kyiv, Ukraine on August 28 (10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Kyiv), “Torture and Persecution of Civilians as Crimes Against Humanity by the Russian Authorities in Ukraine: Ways to Ensure Accountability.” The event will explore how to investigate and prosecute cases of torture, enforced disappearances, and other crimes against civilians during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The event will feature leading experts in field investigations, forensic documentation, and criminal justice – including Poltavets – who will discuss challenges and solutions to advance accountability at the domestic and international levels. Register for the event here.
The PHR policy brief makes recommendations to the government of Ukraine, including:
- Allow forensic medical evaluations from trained clinicians in addition to state-affiliated forensic experts to be admissible in cases concerning torture and conflict-related sexual violence.
- Clarify that investigators have discretion to determine when forensic medical evaluations are necessary and ensure survivors’ consent is obtained before performing an examination.
- Develop, adopt, and roll out comprehensive standardized forensic documentation to support clinicians and forensic experts in documenting conflict-related sexual violence and torture in a trauma-informed and survivor-centered manner.
- Prioritize capacity-building for all clinicians, including non-forensics experts, on survivor-centered, trauma-informed forensic documentation of sexual violence, and torture, in line with international standards.
The policy brief also calls on the international community and civil society actors to provide technical and financial resources to support the national efforts outlined above.
“With these reforms, Ukraine’s pathways to justice can both uplift survivors and hold perpetrators to account. By focusing on the survivor – their autonomy, their voice, their needs, their remedies – we can shift systems and deliver justice,” said Poltavets.
Physicians for Human Rights brings medical, law enforcement, and legal professionals together to gather and preserve forensic medical evidence of conflict-related sexual violence and torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment in survivor-centered, trauma-informed ways to supp ort accountability processes. For over a decade, PHR has worked with partners in conflict and post-conflict settings to design and implement a suite of tools and strategies that have allowed forensic medical evidence of sexual violence and torture to support legal accountability.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to prevent mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here.