Report
Published on January 3, 2025
On Sunday, October 6, 2024, Human Rights Defender (HRD) Tigran Galustyan was driving to rescue civilians from Ukraine’s eastern front near Pokrovsk when he was targeted and killed by a Russian military First Person View (FPV) drone.
As with many other HRDs killed in Ukraine, international safeguards designed to protect him failed to save his life. International mechanisms to hold his killers to account could also fail him in death.
Working on the eastern front, far from the gaze of most foreign diplomats, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and media, his work and the work of other HRDs in the area have gone largely unrecognized.
He was part of a small volunteer team working out of the city of Kharkiv, called Roza na Ruke (Rose on Hand.) It reports having evacuated 14,000 civilians from danger since 2022. Galustyan was targeted and killed while driving a vehicle between the villages of Kurakhove and Hirnyk in the Donetsk region. The van was clearly marked with Roza na Ruke logos.
Despite a series of international safeguards specifically designed to protect HRDs many continue to be killed all over the world for peacefully working for the rights of others. International NGO Front Line Defenders documented the killings of over 300 HRDs in 28 countries in 2023, including 11 from Ukraine. International protections are failing too many HRDs. Impunity fuels these killings, as a failure to bring the perpetrators to account encourages further attacks.
This report is a case study of the targeted killing of one HRD. It aims to highlight the work of Galustyan and his colleagues, provide an account of the circumstances of his death, outline the safeguards that failed to protect him, and suggest possible avenues for accountability for his killing. It is based on research conducted on Ukraine’s eastern front in December 2024 and includes eyewitness testimony, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), media reports, and interviews with volunteers who worked with Galustyan. It also includes analysis of relevant international law and accountability mechanisms.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Human Rights First has made 17 research trips documenting the work of local HRDs in Kharkiv, often working alongside Roza na Ruke to evacuate civilians from communities along the front line, including from Velykyi Burluk, Prykolotne, Kupiansk, Buhoslavka, Kurakhove, Selydove, Kurakhivka, Hirnyk, and Pokrovsk. Human Rights First would like to thank students of the LLM International Human Rights Law program at Queen’s University Belfast, under the supervision of Dr Conall Mallory, and to Denys Glushko, for their research assistance to this project.
Download the full report below.
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