32^nd session of the UN Human Rights Council

Agenda item 10

Interactive Dialogue on High Commissioner’s for Human Rights

oral update on the situation in Ukraine

Statement by

Permanent Representative of Ukraine, Ambassador

Mr. Yurii KLYMENKO

June 29, 2016

Mr. President,

Let me first of all thank ASG Ivan Šimonović for his update. I would also like to once again express gratitude of my Government to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and its Monitoring Mission in Ukraine for their efforts aimed at assisting our country in continued improving of human rights situation.

Fourteenth OHCHR report confirms “the influx from Russia of foreign fighters, including citizens of the Russian Federation, ammunition and heavy weaponry”. The Mission documented massive grave crimes committed by occupying Russian authorities against our citizens in Crimea and by the Russian military alongside their proxies in the Donbas region.

We fully share Mr Šimonović’s view expressed during his presentation of the report in Kyiv earlier this month that the main prerequisite for the local elections in the certain territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions was the restoration of political and civil rights of local residents.

We agree with the report’s conclusion regarding the relevance of the Minsk agreements and the importance of their implementation to stop massive human rights violations.

The situation in the occupied Crimea is further deteriorating after the ban of Mejlis and a rising wave of persecution that followed. Abductions, searches, illegal detentions, beatings, limitations of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and other basic civil rights have become commonplace on the peninsula.

We once again demand that the occupying Russian authorities allow access of the international human rights monitoring missions to the peninsula, raise a ban of the Mejlis, investigate all allegations of ill-treatment, torture, abductions and disappearances, identify those responsible and ensure that they are held accountable. 

Two weeks ago Ukrainian citizens Gennadiy Afanasyev and Yuri Soloshenko, who had been illegally detained, sentenced in Russia and stayed there for two years, thanks to the efforts of Ukraine and the international community returned home.

The world has finally got the opportunity to learn first-hand of complete falsification of their cases as well as of torture, inhuman treatment, intimidation, psychological pressure towards them by Russian law enforcement officials. Afanasyev’s and Soloshenko`s testimonies leave no doubt that similar ill-treatment has been applied towards other Ukrainian citizens - the Kremlin's political captives. They clearly indicate the magnitude of the ongoing lawlessness and deliberate committing by Russia of human rights violations and crimes against humanity.

Ukraine's position remains unchanged - all human rights violations regardless of who committed them and where - must not go unpunished. In this regard, all the reports of possible abuses and violations committed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine brought to our attention are being thoroughly scrutinized.

We appreciate that OHCHR positively noted the efforts of the Government of Ukraine to prosecute the perpetrators of human rights violations. The report also favorably evaluated extensive reforms and the ongoing process of formation of the legal field in Ukraine.

Ukraine strictly adheres to its commitments and obligations under the core international human rights instruments, including the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. We are ready to continue our cooperation with the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and commend the SPT’s decision to resume its visit to Ukraine as soon as it is practically possible.

Ukraine has always considered the HRMMU work, including in supporting special procedures’ and treaty bodies’ visits, as an effective tool of documenting human rights violations by occupation authorities in Crimea and crimes committed by the Russian army and illegal armed groups in parts of Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

We insist that Russia must ensure immediate cessation of acts of aggression against our country, the withdrawal of the Russian Armed Forces from the Ukrainian territory, suspension of arms and military equipment supplies to illegal armed groups, abolition of any acts aimed at the legitimization of the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula, and its de-occupation.

We rely on further support from the Office of the High Commissioner and from wider international community.

We believe that today’s Interactive Dialogue will be an important contribution in this regard and expect the Council to adopt the resolution aimed at continuation of such dialogues for another year.

I thank you.