36^th session of the Human Rights Council

Item 3

Clustered interactive dialogue with Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order and Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights

Intervention by the Permanent Representative of Ukraine

Ambassador Yurii Klymenko

(Geneva, September 14, 2017)

Mr President,

We welcome this dialogue with both special procedures; may I turn to Mr Jazairy.

We would like to express our gratitude to the Special Rapporteur for performing his official functions in accordance with the UN Charter, which includes the principles of sovereignty and non-intervention, and in observance of GA resolutions 68/262 and 71/205. We also highly appreciate the transparent cooperation of Mr Jazairy with all interested parties.

While acknowledging that the assessment of the legality of sanctions lies outside the scope of the mandate, Ukraine strongly upholds that the sanctions applied to the Russian Federation do aim at responding to its grave violations of obligations owed to the international community.

We note the observations made in the report that the sanctions were not all-encompassing, that it was difficult to determine their discrete impact on the enjoyment of human rights and that such impact was not severe.

As for the Special Rapporteur’s recommendation to ensure immunity from sanctions for people elected to a parliamentary assembly, Ukraine underlines that any elections held by the occupying authorities on the territory of Ukraine are a violation of international law and their results are illegitimate.

We fully share the Special Rapporteur’s call on the Russian Federation to ensure the proper and unimpeded access of international human rights monitoring missions to Crimea, and reaffirm the readiness of Ukraine to allow access to its territory in accordance with its national legislation and international law standards.

We would like to seek the Special Rapporteur’s opinion on the possible ways of ensuring access of the international human rights monitoring missions to Crimea in compliance with international law.

Thank you, Mr President.