Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) together with Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) have partnered with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) to prepare a report, an Article 15 communication to the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on hate crimes committed by Russians against Ukrainians.

The submission was made under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, according to which any individual, group, State, or intergovernmental or non-governmental organization may send information to the OTP on alleged crimes within the Court's jurisdiction.

In the appeal of human rights defenders, it is stated that five leading Russian propagandists are responsible for inciting hatred against Ukrainians: Vladimir Solovyov, Margarita Simonyan, Dmitry Kiselyov, Dmitry Medvedev, and Sergey Mardan. The report also mentions the responsibility of the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Alexey Gromov.

The authors of the lawsuit analyzed 526 hours of broadcasting and selected more than 300 statements that meet the criteria of hate speech. These statements encouraged Russian soldiers to detain, torture, kill, or forcibly transfer Ukrainians and persuaded the Russian population to approve of these atrocities human rights activists emphasize.

You can view the links below:

• a 105-page report;
• a short Executive Summary;
• Q&A explaining the main takeaways from the submission.