51st session of the UN Human Rights Council

Item 3

Panel discussion on the negative impact of the legacies of colonialism on the enjoyment of human rights

Intervention by the delegation of Ukraine

Mr. President,

Overcoming the practices of colonialism is certainly one of the undeniable achievements of the last century. Today, most of the world has definitively agreed on leaving behind those times when territorial conquest was the norm, when strong nations could impose their will on the weak ones, when individuals could be oppressed on the basis of belonging to particular communities.

Unfortunately, not all are there yet. The memories of the irrevocable imperial past haunt the masters of the Kremlin in Moscow and stand at the center of their motivation to constantly encroach on territorial integrity of Ukraine and other nations of the region, to destabilize the world and to deter it from moving forward.

For five centuries, most of the territory of Ukraine has been part of the russian imperial entities, a territorial appendage whose rich resources could be exploited with full scale and whose distinctive nation with its own language, culture and self-consciousness was to be subjugated and forcefully assimilated.

Such were the objectives that dictated numerous attempts to eradicate Ukrainian language or that led to mass tragedies such as Holodomor. The same motivations lie at the heart of Russia’s ongoing unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, driven by the calls for “deukrainization”, accompanied with persecution of those who demonstrate devotion to Ukraine and resulting in the theft of Ukrainian grain, resources and ultimately our land.

Russian aggression demonstrates that its foreign policy is grounded on damaged and detached from reality post-colonial basis. Russian imperialism is threat to international order, which, unless dealt with, will prevent us all from overcoming the colonial legacies of the past, and the world should stay united in confronting this menace.

Thank you!