30th session of the UN Human Rights Council
Agenda item 4 General Debate
Statement by Permanent Representative of Ukraine
Ambassador Yurii Klymenko
September 21, 2015
Mr. President,
The Delegation of Ukraine has to draw the attention of the Council to the continuing neglecting by the Russian Federation of the universal human rights principles.
Illegal arrests, abductions from the territory of Ukraine and further illegal detentions in Russia on trumped-up charges of Ukrainian citizens have been continuing since the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
There are politically motivated prosecutions in occupied Crimea. Russian legislation is used to pressure, intimidate and persecute Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian activists whose opinion steers against that of the self-proclaimed authorities. They are charged of alleged criminal cases that happened even before illegal annexation (the so-called “referendum” of March 16, 2014) or that are related to events that occurred out of Crimea, for example, during the Revolution of Dignity.
We still do not have a complete list of those imprisoned on obvious political grounds in Russia, or in the occupied peninsula, despite all the laws and international norms. The list includes both well-known names such as Nadiya Savchenko, Oleg Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko and others as Mykola Karpyuk, Stanislav Klykh and Yurii Soloshenko who suffer from physical violence and torture and are deprived even of access of Ukrainian consular officials to their places of detention.
We reiterate that the provisions of Minsk agreements regarding the release of all hostages and illegally detained persons apply to the Ukrainian citizens illegally detained in Russia, or on the Russian-occupied territory.
Ukraine calls upon the international community to make the Russian Federation to strictly abide by the norms and principles of international law and the Minsk agreements and to immediately release Nadiya Savchenko, Oleg Sentsov and other Ukrainian citizens illegally detained in Russia, as well as to ensure their safe return to Ukraine.
I thank you.