A/HRC/40/59/Add.3 presence of one or several guards, and therefore remained extremely limited. The Special Rapporteur regrets to report that, despite the formal and timely announcement of the entire delegation, the prison authorities in Donetsk arbitrarily denied access to a human rights officer who was an official member of his team. 11. In view of the restrictions imposed on the Special Rapporteur’s visits to places of detention controlled by the de facto authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk, the Special Rapporteur wishes to stress that he agreed to conduct these visits on an absolutely exceptional basis only, taking into consideration a multitude of factors including, most notably: (a) the fact that these places of detention were not under the control of the authorities of Ukraine or any other internationally recognized State having extended an official invitation to his mandate; (b) the prolonged lack of access to such places of detention by other international monitoring mechanisms such as the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, and even the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); and (c) the resulting lack of reliable information on the whereabouts, living conditions and treatment of thousands of persons held in such places of detention. The Special Rapporteur’s decision to conduct the visits under the given circumstances constituted an exceptional measure of confidencebuilding tailored to the Ukrainian context and does not reflect any intention to deviate from the official terms of reference of his mandate.1 12. In preparing his official visit to Ukraine, the Special Rapporteur sought access to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (hereinafter Crimea) on the basis of General Assembly resolutions 68/262, 71/205 and 72/190. 2 Having received the authorization of the Ukrainian authorities, he also sought the concurrence of the authorities of the Russian Federation for the delegation to visit Crimea. The Russian Federation responded positively to the request but requested that such access take place in accordance with the procedures required for an official visit to the national territory of the Russian Federation. Therefore, he regrets to report that he was unable to visit Crimea in the framework of his visit to Ukraine. II. Situation in government-controlled territory A. Legal framework 1. International and regional level 13. Ukraine has ratified most international human rights treaties relevant to the prohibition and prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (24 February 1987), the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (19 September 2006) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (12 November 1973). Since 12 September 2003, Ukraine has accepted the inquiry procedure and the individual complaints procedure under the Convention against Torture. 14. Furthermore, Ukraine has ratified the Geneva Conventions relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts (3 August 1954) and their Protocols additional to 1977 (25 January 1990). While Ukraine is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, on 17 April 2014 the Government lodged a declaration under article 12 (3) of the Rome Statute, accepting the Court’s jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine from 21 November 2013 to 22 February 2014 (the Maidan events). On 8 September 2015, the Government of Ukraine submitted a second declaration under article 12 (3) of the Rome Statute, accepting the exercise of jurisdiction by the Court in relation to 1 2 4 See https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/TermsOfReference.aspx. “See United Nations General Assembly resolution 71/205 of 19 December 2016 referring to Crimea as occupied by the Russian Federation; and resolution 72/190 of 19 December 2017 and 73/263 of December 22, 2018, urging the Russian Federation to comply with its obligations as an occupying power in Crimea”,