Mr. President,

Ukraine thanks the Special Rapporteur for the important effort to clarify a human rights-compliant definition of terrorism.

We particularly welcome the elements emphasizing that terrorist acts include serious criminal conduct intentionally causing death, serious bodily injury or hostage-taking, when aimed at terrorizing populations or coercing governments, and causing serious harm to a State.

These elements are tragically visible in the context of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine where it continues to deliberately target civilian infrastructure, causing death, serious injury and widespread destruction, while also engaging in the unlawful detention and hostage-taking of Ukrainian civilians.

On the top of that, Russian delegation is misleading this Council by presenting a distorted interpretation of the judgment of the International Court of Justice of 31 January 2024 which clearly found that Russia failed to comply with its obligation under Article 9 of the Terrorism Financing Convention by not investigating credible allegations related to Russian attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk.

Furthermore, the proceedings addressed serious claims under CERD concerning discrimination against Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians in occupied Crimea. Attempts to selectively interpret the judgment cannot obscure the broader pattern of violations committed by Russia against Ukraine and its people.

Mr. Special Rapporteur,

How can States ensure that counter-terrorism frameworks are not misused to shield acts of violence against civilians from accountability?

I thank you!