EU Statement – Plenary session 6 at the 2024 Warsaw Human Dimension Conference

1. Respect for and protection of the rule of law are cornerstones of the OSCE's comprehensive security framework, ensuring fairness, accountability and justice for all. It is our collective duty to uphold and defend these fundamental principles. As both a moral imperative and a legal obligation, the EU remains committed to improving the effectiveness of the administration of justice, ensuring fair trials and transparent processes through an independent and impartial judiciary.

2. The independence of the judiciary lies at the heart of the rule of law and is a key pillar of effective oversight in democratic societies. Fair, proportionate and equitable laws bind all individuals, institutions and State authorities, safeguarding their integrity and proper functioning. It is our responsibility to promote confidence in the justice system and to ensure that everyone, without discrimination, has the right to a fair trial by an impartial tribunal and access to legal assistance. Any deviation from these legal principles or the arbitrary use of state power stands in clear opposition to our OSCE commitments.

3. In the light of Russia’s continued unprovoked, unjustifiable and illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU demands that Russia fulfills its legal obligation under international humanitarian law and human rights law. We strongly condemn Russia’s use of torture, sexual violence and arbitrary detentions of civilians, which must cease immediately.

4. The rights of Ukrainian prisoners of war, fair trial guarantees and humane treatment must be ensured, as outlined in the Third Geneva Convention. Prisoners of war must be afforded legal proceedings based on common legal principles, including the right to prepare an effective defence, and they must not be forced to confess their alleged guilt. As previously highlighted at this conference, the intentional denial of prisoners of war’s right to a fair and regular trial constitutes a war crime. According to this year’s Moscow Mechanism report, Russian authorities have consistently failed to abide by the obligation to general legal principles by applying increasingly arbitrary methods that are incompatible with the principle of rule of law.

5. We call on the Russian Federation to immediately and unconditionally release unlawfully detained civilians and prisoners of war and return all individuals, in particular children, who have been forcibly transferred to the territories of Ukraine temporarily controlled or occupied by the Russian Federation or unlawfully deported to the territory of Russia and Belarus. While we are relieved by the recent release of the Russian political prisoners Vladimir Kara-Murza, Andrei Pivovarov, Oleg Orlov, Aleksandra Skochilenko, Ilya Yashin, Lilia Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeeva, Vadim Ostanin, Russian/US-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and US-American journalist Evan Gershkovich, we call for an immediate and unconditional release and effective rehabilitation of all those arbitrarily or unlawfully arrested, charged or sentenced on politically motivated grounds or for exercising their human rights in Russia. We are outraged by the death of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny, for which the ultimate responsibility lies with President Putin and the Russian authorities, and their failure to conduct an independent investigation into the circumstances of his death. The sentencing of politician Alexei Gorinov, activist Dima Ivanov, journalist Maria Ponomarenko, historian Yuri Dmitriev, playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, theatre director Evgenia Berkovich and Russian/US-American ballet dancer Ksenia Karelina as well as continued trials against Alexei Navalny’s lawyers and many others are worrying signs that the Russian legal system continues to be instrumentalized against dissenting individuals.

6. We remain deeply concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in Belarus and strongly condemn the continuing persecution and intimidation campaigns against all segments of Belarusian society. We deplore that political prisoners remain incarcerated in appalling conditions, exposed to torture and ill-treatment, without access to essential health services, and that many of these prisoners have been kept for long periods of time without contact with their lawyers and relatives. The EU urges the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, and their effective rehabilitation.

The Candidate Countries NORTH MACEDONIA*, MONTENEGRO*, ALBANIA*, UKRAINE, the REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA, and BOSNIA and HERZEGOVINA*, and the EFTA countries ICELAND, LIECHTENSTEIN and NORWAY, members of the European Economic Area, as well as ANDORRA and SAN MARINO align themselves with this statement.

* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process