41st session of the UN Human Rights Council
Agenda item 10
General Debate - Oral Update on Georgia
Intervention by the Delegation of Ukraine
(10 July 2019)
Mr. President,
Ukraine reiterates its appreciation to the Office of the High Commissioner for providing technical assistance at the country level. The commitment of OHCHR to delivering much needed help to states is essential for improvement of human rights situations in these countries as well as globally.
Current, highly constructive and fruitful cooperation of Ukraine with OHCHR started in 2014 when the Government of Ukraine has invited the Office to deploy its monitoring mission in our country. Since then, the mission has prepared numerous regular and thematic reports, provided valuable recommendations, which, being implemented by Ukraine,are contributing significantly to the improvement of its human rights policy.
Unfortunately, some particularly important obstacles have not been removed, namely the possibility for the mission to conduct its monitoring on all territories of Ukraine, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation.
This is especially alarming considering that for the sixth year Crimea remains a territory of the most blatant violations of fundamental freedoms and complete disregard of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by Russia’s occupying administration.
Despite the concerns by the international community, as evidenced by three United Nations General Assembly resolutions on human rights situation in Crimea, Russia continues its policy of non-cooperation with human rights monitoring mechanisms – a pattern that extends well beyond Ukraine.
In this regard, we welcome the High Commissioner’s update on cooperation with Georgia, which echoing previous reports on the subject, pays specific attention to the lack of access to Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. We share the conclusion that this raises legitimate concerns about the grave human rights situation of population living there.
Ukraine reaffirms its staunchsupport for Georgia’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.
At the same time, we believe that situations on occupied Ukrainian and Georgian territories can only be improved through robust and continuous pressure on the occupying power. Therefore, we call on international partners and institutions to reinforce demands that Russia finally starts honoring its obligations under international law.
I thank you.