51st session of the UN Human Rights Council
Agenda Item 3
General Debate
Item 3: Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development
(Geneva, 21 September 2022)
Mr. President,
We thank the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner and the Special Procedures for the reports presented under Item 3.
Ukraine remains strongly committed to the 2030 Agenda and sees it as a way to achieve better protection of the human rights for all. However, the ongoing full-scale unprovoked and unjustified war waged by Russia against my country has seriously undermined progress on almost all SDGs within Ukraine and beyond.
As mentioned in the report of the High Commissioner, russia’s war on my country has global implications as its socioeconomic effects, including global food security crisis, that puts more people in the risk of poverty.
As President Zelenskyy underlined at the Global Food Security Summit yesterday: “russia wants to make protection from hunger not a right, but a privilege, and wants to make food – not an unalienable right, but something to beg for”. We categorically do not accept that.
In this regard I would like to reiterate that Ukraine remains a committed global food security guarantor, a role it has played for years before the russian naval blockade of Ukrainian seaports. The Government of Ukraine is dedicated to the operation of the Black Sea grain corridor and works relentlessly to ensure that Ukraine’s exports reach the most vulnerable. Standing in solidarity with Ukraine against russian aggression means guaranteeing the right to food and protection from hunger for every individual.
Under the Black Sea Grain Initiative Ukraine has already exported over 4.1 million tons of agricultural products, 2/3 of which went to Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. We spare no effort to catch up with the pre-war level of exports do so in the shortest possible terms, while the Russian Federation is consistently trying to undermine these efforts.
Mr. President,
For seven months of russia’s war against Ukraine continue to bring unspeakable suffering for every Ukrainian. The goal of russia’s aggression is to deprive the people of Ukraine of their basic human rights.
As we speak the russian authorities are attempting to organize sham ‘referendums’ in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Rolling out the same playbook it used in 2014 when Russia occupied Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine, Kremlin once again exposes its malicious intent to deny the citizens of Ukraine the right to live in an independent country, to vote for democracy and not for dictatorship.
Ukraine considers the intention to hold pseudo-referendums and the forced passportization of residents of the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories as another attempt by Russia to legitimize the consequences of its war of aggression against Ukraine.
No matter how many illegitimate polls the Russian Federation holds in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or declares hybrid “mobilisation”, there will be only one result: all Ukrainian regions will be liberated from the Russian occupation, and the Russian leadership will be brought to justice for organized terror, war crimes and crimes against humanity on the Ukrainian soil.
I thank you.