38^th session of the UN Human Rights Council

Agenda item 3

Clustered interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur

on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

 

Intervention by the Permanent Representative of Ukraine

Ambassador Yurii Klymenko

 

June 18, 2018

 

Mr. President,

We welcome conducting this dialogue with Special Rapporteur on the right to health Mr. Puras.

We fully agree that violations of the right to health emerge as both causes and consequences of confinement and deprivation of liberty.

Impermissible and tragic situation is faced by the Ukrainian political prisoners in occupied Crimea and in Russia - they are in poor health and no basic healthcare is provided, furthermore Ukrainian doctors are totally denied access to the prisoners. Oleg Sentsov is one of them, who was illegally sentenced in 2015 to 20 years of hard labour in a penal colony in Russia’s north. On 14^th of May he announced an indefinite hunger strike until all Ukrainian political prisoners on the territory of the Russian Federation are freed.

Recognizing that every hour is crucial for those innocent prisoners in poor health, we seek the opinion of the Special Rapporteur on possible ways to safeguard their right to health and ensure access of independent, objective medical workers to them.

Meanwhile millions of Ukrainian citizens remain trapped under Russian occupation in Crimea and are denied realizing their right to health. Patients in occupied peninsula who refused or did not obtain a Russian passport are denied medical care that has already caused dozens of deaths.

In the Russian occupied regions of Luhansk and Donetsk the situation has returned to the dark ages - there are credible reports that anti-retroviral and tuberculosis treatment is totally unavailable.

We share your, Mr. Puras, call on the international community to scale up support for community-based interventions that effectively safeguard individuals from discriminatory, arbitrary, excessive or inappropriate confinement.

Thank you.