UN Special Rapporteurs are yet to respond to the appeals by international organisations calling for urgent action to ensure the release and protect the rights of Crimea-based journalist Iryna Danylovych, Krym.Realii reported, citing Danylovych’s sister, Olha Novytska.
Novytska said that Iryna Danylovych has been facing more groundless searches in the prison, which are carried out without the necessary paperwork.
“I haven’t heard of the Special Rapporteurs giving any response to these appeals. Not one of them has even made a public statement in support of my sister. Even though the UN adopted the Mandela Rules and the UN Convention against Torture, UN representatives are simply ignoring the situation right now. And Russian prison officials take advantage of their silence to show once again what exactly they think of international law,” she said.
She also called on everyone who cares about the plight to reach out to the UN Special Rapporteurs and ask whether they plan to respond to international organisations’ appeals concerning Iryna Danylovych.
Novytska said that appeals to the Russian penal authorities by foreign organisations could also help demonstrate that the journalist’s situation is being monitored internationally.
She had previously stated that Iryna Danylovych was being deliberately driven to suicide with the unbearable pain that loud music causes her.
Reporters Without Borders and the US-based Human Rights Foundation handed Iryna Danylovych’s case to six UN special rapporteurs on June 19, asking them to take urgent action to free her.
Novytska said that there had been no response whatsoever from the prison administration following this, aside from an unscheduled search of her sister’s belongings.
On 28 April 2026, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) began trial in two lawsuits filed by Ukrainian journalist, Russia’s political prisoner Iryna Danylovych against Russia. The cases concerned unlawful detention and the journalist’s inclusion in Russia’s “foreign agents” register.
The case of Iryna Danylovych
Iryna Danylovych was detained on 29 April 2022, in the occupied Crimea. She was detained on her way from work on the road from Koktebel to Feodosia. Her house in Vladislavivka village was searched, her phone and laptop were seized.
She was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of storing an explosive device in December 2022. The sentence was later cut back a month, and the journalist moved to a prison in Russia.
Her health has deteriorated considerably while in jail: she suffered a stroke, lost hearing in one ear, and has repeatedly complained that proper medical assistance was being withheld from her. In 2024, she complained of heart pain and neurological problems.
It was reported in 2025 that Iryna Danylovych was in women’s prison No. 7 in Zelenokumsk (Stavropol Kray, Russia), in harsh conditions. She addressed international institutions with a request to pay more attention to human rights abuse in Russian prisons.
In January 2026, Iryna Danylovych called on the international community to put more effort into raising awareness of the plight of Russia’s political prisoners in 2026.
Iryna Danylovych was a nurse and worked with Inzhyr Media and Crimean Process. She had a blog on social media and wrote columns on healthcare workers’ rights and healthcare issues in occupied Crimea.
