38^th session of the UN Human Rights Council

Agenda item 2

Interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner

Intervention by Permanent Representative of Ukraine                                 

Ambassador Yurii KLYMENKO

 

June 19, 2018

Mr. President,

We thank the High Commissioner for his update and for his tremendous work in the field of human rights.

We fully share your appeal, Mr. High Commissioner, to do more, to speak louder, and to work harder for the common purpose, for universal human rights law.

We really have to move this path today, under the circumstances of hybrid wars, of neglecting human rights and offence of fundamental freedoms. We have to be loud, we have to be brave and we have to make distinctions, in particular, between fake festive shows and real deeds.      

I agree with the dignitary from Qatar, who told us yesterday that football games are really good way for people to reconcile, to establish friendship, to have a good time together.

But not this time, not in Russia-2018.

The country which bombed Syria, invaded Georgia and Ukraine, occupied the parts of their sovereign territories, kills people in Ukrainian Donbass, beats and arrests its own citizens during peaceful protests, this country is hosting today the FIFA World Cup.

These very days when the Russian hotels are booked by football fans, the Russian prisons are overcrowded by political detainees. Many of them have been arrested in the occupied territory of Ukraine and unlawfully transferred to the Russian detention facilities.

The Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, unlawfully imprisoned in Russia on fake and politically motivated charges, has been on hunger strike more than a month. Oleg demands to release over 60 Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia, including Volodymyr Balukh, Stanislav Klyh, journalist Roman Sushchenko and others. They are denied access of Ukrainian consuls, proper medical assistance, they are tortured, beaten and intimidated to extort “incriminating” confessions. Today Oleg Sentsov’s state of health has drastically deteriorated. His life is in a real danger.

I hope that this Council, will not stay aside of saving people’s lives and ensuring their safe return home. And the High Commissioner and his Office, on the year of 70^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration, keep showing the leadership on the path of protecting human rights, the path ahead, not backwards.    

And then, together, we will enjoy watching football games.

I thank you.