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33^rd session of the UN Human Rights Council

Agenda item 2

General debates

 

Intervention by Permanent Representative of Ukraine                                 

Ambassador Yurii Klymenko

 

(September 14, 2016)

 

Mr. President,

         We are grateful to the High Commissioner for the update on the work of his Office. We fully share the focus of this update since we believe that cooperation and transparency are essential for promotion and protection of human rights.

Exactly with this in mind, over ten years ago Ukraine extended an open standing invitation for all special procedures, which only during latest two-year period payed five visits to my country.

We closely cooperate with the OHCHR and its Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, which significantly contribute to the impartial informing of the world community about the human rights situation, the root cause of which is the Russian aggression against Ukraine. From the very beginning of this aggression in early 2014 we have been insisting on full and unimpeded access of human rights mechanisms to the affected territories, first of all – to the illegally occupied Crimea.

Yet, such an access has been continuously denied by the occupying Russian authorities in attempts to hide the severe harm to the enjoyment of human rights, first of all, by the indigenous people of Crimea – Crimean Tatars. Russian-backed illegal armed groups in certain areas of Donbas refuse to allow international human rights actors to the territories they temporarily control, trying to conceal the disastrous situation there.

Nevertheless, even remote monitoring helps uncover the truth. We expect the 15^th periodic OHCHR report on the human rights situation in Ukraine to be published soon and to become a basis for discussion during the interactive dialogue on 27 September 2016.

We continue to count on valuable OHCHR assistance in ensuring full compliance with the human rights standards on all the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.

 

I thank you.