UN experts demand accountability for Flight MH17 tragedy
Press releases
Special Procedures
16 May 2025
GENEVA -- Those responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which killed 283 passengers and 15 crew members in July 2014 over eastern Ukraine must be brought to justice, UN experts said today, after a landmark decision by the council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
"Those responsible for this heinous crime remain at large and must be brought to justice without any further delay," the experts said.
On Monday, 12 May, the ICAO agreed in law and in fact with claims brought by Australia and the Netherlands regarding the shooting down of Flight MH17 and decided that the Russian Federation breached its obligations to "refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight."
The decision was a first for the ICAO on the merits of a dispute between Member States under the Organization's dispute settlement mechanism.
"The killings of the passengers and members of crew of the MH17, on 17 July 2014, over Eastern Ukraine, is tantamount to an arbitrary deprivation of life, and in view of the armed conflict at the time may also amount to a war crime," the experts said.
The Special Rapporteurs recalled that under both international human rights and humanitarian law, States have a duty to investigate, prosecute, and punish all violations of the right to life, and provide reparations to families of victims.
The experts hailed the comprehensive forensic investigation conducted by the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) and the MH17 Joint Investigation Team (JIT). The investigations provided conclusive evidence that the plane was shot down with a Buk 9M38 surface-to-air missile originating from the Fifty-Third Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Federation, fired from rebel-controlled territory.
They also welcomed the use of universal jurisdiction by a Dutch court, which in November 2022 charged two Russian officials and a member of the armed groups of the self-proclaimed 'Donetsk people's republic' for murdering all 298 people on board flight MH17 and sentenced them in absentia to life imprisonment. The Dutch court also ruled that the 'separatist forces' fighting at the time in eastern Ukraine were under control of the Russian Federation.
"All States, including the Russian Federation, must fulfil their international obligations to effectively search for, locate, and arrest those responsible, and ensure they are brought to justice," the experts said.
"The failure to do so is a grave affront to the victims and their families and sets a dangerous precedent of impunity for an intolerable international crime," they said.
*The experts: Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, and Mariana Katzarova, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation.
Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.
Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/
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