48th session of the UN Human Rights Council
Agenda item 3
Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery
Intervention by the delegation of Ukraine
(17 September 2021)
Mme President,
We welcome the Special Rapporteur and commend the work done by Mr Obokata on exploring the nexus between displacement and contemporary forms of slavery.
The ongoing Russian armed aggression has led to a dire humanitarian situation on the occupied territories of Donbas. The aggression has forced thousands to flee their homes; so far, nearly 1.4 million people in my country are officially registered as internally displaced.
In order to remove all possible risks the IDPs may face as a vulnerable group, Ukraine is implementing a national “Strategy of Integration of Internally Displaced Persons and Implementation of Durable Solutions to Internal Displacement” to ensure their proper integration; and we would like to thank our partners including international donors and organizations for their assistance in addressing multiple consequences of the Russian aggression.
However, we are extremely concerned with a worrying trend of the use of forced labour as a form of slavery by the occupation administration in several penal colonies in the occupied Donbas documented, inter alia, in the OHCHR reports.
An example of where such practices are applied is the secret detention center Izolyatsia in occupied Donetsk. During the last HRC session, a former prisoner, Stanislav Aseev, provided a detailed testimony of forced labour, mock executions, and other such methods used at Izolyatsia. This is just one of many examples of such practice exercised in the Russian concentration camps in the east of Ukraine.
In this regard, we call for the attention of the Special Rapporteur to the aggravating situation with the exploitation of forced labour in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
I thank you.