Intervention by the Permanent Representative of Ukraine Yurii Klymenko at the Clustered Interactive Dialogue with the Independent Expert on the Effects of Foreign Debt and other Related International Financial Obligations of States on the Full Enjoyment of Human Rights, Particularly Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Mr. President,
We thank the Independent Expert Mr. Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky for his report.
Ukraine highly appreciates the work carried out by the various UN special procedures and was among the first countries, which issued a standing open invitation for all Human Rights Council’s special procedures mandate holders.
Regardless of the fact that several special procedures do not enjoy the overall support or the support of a country concerned, the Government of Ukraine, nonetheless, believes that this cannot be used to justify non-cooperation with a particular special procedure. It is for this very reason Ukraine hosted a visit of the Independent Expert from 14 to 28 May 2018.
We appreciate the opportunity to engage in the dialogue with the Independent Expert on his findings. Meanwhile, we regret that the Independent Expert just left outmany of the comments and observations made by the Ukrainian authorities to the Report.
At this stage, we would like to outline briefly a few of our comments concerning the content of the Report, which, in our view, should have been taken into account by the Independent Expert.
Given the fact that the Report deals with Ukraine it must contain references to resolution UN GA 73/263 “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and in the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine” and take into consideration the provisions of the Ukrainian legislation. The Law of Ukraine “On Peculiarities of the State Policy on Ensuring the State Sovereignty of Ukraine in the Temporarily Occupied Territories in Donetsk and Luhansk Regions” clearly defines the legal status of the temporarily occupied territories. Due to the temporary occupation by the Russian Federation of the integral part of Ukraine – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – Russia bears full responsibility for the respect for and protection of human rights in these territories under international humanitarian law and international human rights law. In his report the Independent Expert had, among other things, to take into account that the Russian aggression caused very substantial economic damage to Ukraine.The steps aimed at securingthe financial and macroeconomic stabilization consisted inter alia of strengthening the cooperation with the IMF and other international financial organizations. Effective State debt management was one of the priorities in this regard.
Despite the Russian aggression in the occupied Crimea and Donbas, Ukraine continues to carry out comprehensive reforms aimed at strengthening democracy and the rule of law, ensuring economic prosperity, modernisation and well-being of citizens. The anti-corruption reform, including the establishment of the Specialized Anticorruption Court, remains among the priorities of Ukraine. Ukraine has finalized the formation of legislative basis for continuation of the anti-corruption reform. The recent adoption of the law on High Anticorruption Court signifies the determination of the Ukrainian authorities in fighting corruption. The Court is expected to be launched in the next few months.
The Government of Ukraine will further consider the recommendations put forward by the Independent Expert. At the same time, we would like to draw attention to the publication of the relevant comments by the Government of Ukraine on the OHCHR websiteas addendum to the Report.
I thank you.