UN accuses Russia of violating human rights in Crime

The UN human rights agency says it has documented arbitrary arrests, torture and at least one extra-judicial execution in the region.

"Grave human rights violations, such as arbitrary arrests and detentions, enforced disappearances, ill-treatment and torture, and at least one extra-judicial execution were documented," the report says.

"There is an urgent need for accountability," UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said.

It adds that there have been "intrusive law enforcement raids of private properties" which "interfered with [the] right to privacy".

The report, which says the human rights situation has "significantly deteriorated" in the region, notes that hundreds of prisoners were illegally transferred from Crimea to Russian jails.

It says civil servants were forced to renounce their Ukrainian citizenship or face losing their jobs, and condemned Moscow's decision to replace Ukrainian laws with Russian ones.

Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine after the country's pro-Russian leader was overthrown in 2014. There was no immediate response from Russia to the report's accusations.

UCJ, UNILORIN.