UN: East Ukraine's civilians face 'host of rights violations'

In a report on December 8, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said people living close to the "contact line" between government-controlled and separatist-held territory were the hardest hit. These civilians "suffer from a serious lack of security due to military engagement near their homes, the threat of mines and unexploded ordnance, and severe and disproportionate restrictions on their freedom of movement," it said. The report also said separatist groups controlling parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions "continue to deprive people of their basic rights and of any effective mechanism for redress." The report covers a three-month period till November 15 and includes documented information based on interviews with witnesses and victims. During the period, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine recorded 32 conflict-related civilian deaths and 132 injuries. As of December 1, the UN's "conservative estimate" of the death toll among civilians and combatants since the conflict erupted in April 2014 is 9,758, with almost 23 thousand injured.