32nd session of the UN Human Rights Council

Agenda item 10 “Board of Trustees of the United

Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation”

Intervention by the representative of Ukraine

June 30, 2016

Mr. President,

Ukraine was recently honored to host the second part of the forty-second session of the Board of Trustees of the UN Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights. This provided a good opportunity for the Board to discuss the role and added value of OHCHR on the ground with a number of Ukrainian authorities, the UN Resident Coordinator and the UN country team and partners, as well as with regional and civil society organizations.

We share the positive Board`s evaluation of prompt OHCHR’s actions on establishing the Mission in Ukraine that had immediately commenced its extensive monitoring work in early 2014 and since then has been playing a key role in providing technical advice and support in Ukraine, which is much appreciated by the Government.

We are pleased to see in the Report before the Council that the Mission, its advice and its reports served as the main human rights references for all UN partners in the context of their own mandates. We also fully share the Board’s conclusion that the work of the Mission aimed at integrating key human rights issues into UN common analysis and programs should be considered a good practical example of the functioning of the Human Rights Up Front initiative. It is worth noting as well that a number of countries, international organisations and NGOs recognized the Mission`s reports as a source of unbiased, impartial and objective information regarding human rights situation in Ukraine and its deterioration, the root cause of which is the ongoing Russian aggression.

To this end the Government of Ukraine encourages all relevant stakeholders to continue strengthening the Mission capacity and remains ready to fully cooperate with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.  

Thank you.