A/HRC/27/75 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 26/30 of 25 June 2014 on cooperation and assistance to Ukraine in the field of human rights, the Human Rights Council invited the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to report on the implementation of the resolution at its twenty-seventh session. 2. The present report covers the period from 21 November 2013 to 5 September 2014 and provides an overview of key human rights developments and concerns described in the five reports issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) between 15 April and 29 August 2014, on the basis of the work of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. II. Background 3. From 21 November 2013 to 22 February 2014, large-scale street protests erupted, triggered by the decision of then President Viktor Yanukovych not to sign an association agreement with the European Union. Underlying the protests was a widespread, deepseated dissatisfaction with a system broadly perceived as corrupt and lacking accountability, with weak rule-of-law institutions and a judiciary that was neither independent nor able to ensure equal rights, fair trial and due process of law. 4. The protests were further exacerbated by violence and excessive use of force by the police, particularly on Independence Square (Maidan) in Kyiv, where over 100 people were killed between January and February 2014, including by snipers. The violence and human rights violations that took place at Maidan led to the downfall of the Government, the departure of the President to the Russian Federation and the formation of a pro-European interim Government on 27 February 2014. 5. In March 2014, the crisis broadened, with paramilitary and so-called self-defence groups as well as soldiers without insignia — widely believed to be from the Russian Federation — taking control of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and organizing a referendum to join the Russian Federation. In its resolution 68/262 of 27 March 2014, the General Assembly, reiterating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, concluded that the referendum had “no validity” (para. 5). Furthermore, individuals could not freely exercise their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and there were credible allegations of harassment, arbitrary arrests, torture and targeting of activists and journalists who did not support the referendum. 6. Also in March, in the aftermath of the Maidan events, regular rallies, mainly in the eastern regions of Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk, but also in the south, notably in Odessa, began to be organized with participation of the local population, but also allegedly individuals and groups from neighbouring regions of the Russian Federation. The main demand was that a referendum be held on the federalization of Ukraine or union with the Russian Federation, as well as recognition of Russian as a second State language. The demonstrations appeared widely sustained by Russian-language media and social networks. Supporters and opponents of that protest movement regularly clashed, resulting in the first three deaths of the crisis in the eastern regions on 13 and 14 March 2014. 3