10 December 2025

10 December — International Human Rights Day

Every year on 10 December, the world observes International Human Rights Day, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. On this day, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted — a document intended to guarantee the protection of human dignity.

For Ukrainians, this day carries special significance — it painfully reminds us that Russia violates these rights every day in the occupied territories. For Russia, it makes no difference who stands before it: a five-year-old child or a seventy-year-old man.

Russia’s global objective is singular — to break Ukrainians as a nation and to populate the peninsula with its own citizens. That is why Ukrainian children are abducted under fabricated pretexts, people are forced into illegal passportization, families are deported, and individuals are humiliated even for an ordinary comment in support of Ukraine on social media.

Moreover, human rights violations on the peninsula are accompanied by enforced detentions. As of 8 December, the occupiers have illegally imprisoned 224 people, 133 of whom are Crimean Tatars. Many are held for years in inhumane conditions, denied visits with their families and access to medical care. At the same time, the study of native languages has been restricted on the peninsula—today, no Ukrainian-language schools remain, forcing children to study in Russian.