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Human Rights Council votes to hold urgent debate on Ukraine crisis
The scheduled work of the UN Human Rights Council was halted temporarily on Monday as Member States were called to vote on a request from Ukraine to hold an urgent debate on the matter and to condemn Russia’s military operation.
Addressing the Council, Yevheniia Filipenko, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN in Geneva, outlined the death and suffering caused across Ukraine, amid reports that talks were under way between Ukraine and Russia at the Belorussian border.
The Ukraine delegation also presented a draft resolution to be considered during the Urgent Debate, calling for the Council to set up an international probe into any alleged human rights violations stemming from the Russian move.
“The reason for this request is known to the whole world. Russia - a Member of this Council - perpetrated an unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine,” said Ms. Filipenko. “It was an attack not only on Ukraine, it was an attack on every UN Member State in the United Nations and on the principles that this organization was created to defend.
“After weeks of Russia-instigated escalation and threats, on 24 February, its troops entered Ukraine from the territory of the Russian Federation and Belarus in a full-scale invasion, using a wide arsenal of military capabilities and personnel. In four days, the toll of this action on Ukraine has become devastating. According to Ukraine's Ministry of Health, 352 people, including 16 children, were killed and around 1,700 people, among them at least 160 children wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been internally displaced or became refugees. Ukrainian people have been subjected to regular bombing and shelling. Thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed. Attacks on the capital city of Kiev and other Ukrainian cities have forced million people to spend days and nights in shelters and subways.”
Rejecting the request for an Urgent Debate, which will happen on Thursday at the Council, Russian Representative Gennady Gatilov expressed disappointment “with the attempts of a number of delegations to once again ramp up confrontation in the Council. The proposal to discuss as an Urgent Debate the topic that has nothing to do with the true concerns about human rights in Ukraine. Before us we have nothing other than the usual attempt by Kiev to distract the attention of the international community away from what they have been doing for nearly eight years now, which is a targeted destruction of innocent women, children and elderly people in Donetsk and Luhansk.”
Following that intervention, President of the Human Rights Council Federico Villegas (Argentina) called on all 47 Members of the body to vote on Ukraine’s request. “The results of the nominal votes are: 29 votes in favour, five against, 13 abstentions. Therefore, the proposal is adopted,” he said.
Highlighting grave concerns about the toll on civilians from the “military attack on Ukraine”, Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that “countless lives” were being put at risk.
“Between Thursday morning and last night, our office has recorded 406 civilian casualties, including 102 killed – including seven children – and 304 injured,” she said. “Most of these civilians were killed by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and airstrikes. The real figures are, I fear, considerably higher.”
After speaking out against the Russian action in recent days, UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his video address to the rights body, insisted that human rights are “inescapable” as well as “powerful…People everywhere know that intuitively. And autocrats, especially, know that human rights pose the greatest threat to authority. That’s why they stop at nothing to deny, dismiss and distract people’s attention, as they trample on basic rights and freedoms.”
Amid reports from the UN human rights office, OHCHR, that more than 1,800 anti-war protesters have been arrested in Russia, Mr. Guterres said that “closing down a celebrated human rights organization, with a proud history and global links, this is not the sign of a strong State. It is the sign of a state that fears the power of human rights.”
Ignazio Cassis, President of the Swiss Confederation, underscored the level of international concern: “Let us be clear, the efforts of the Russian Federation to legitimise its actions are not credible. No provocation happened to justify such an intervention. Switzerland condemns in the firmest manner possible the attack by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law, notably the proscription of the use of force and the principle of the territorial sovereignty of States. The military intervention of the Russian Federation runs contrary to the most fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter, which were created out of the ruins of two world wars.”
Speakers:
- António Guterres, UN Secretary-General
- Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
- Federico Villegas (Argentina), President, Human Rights Council
- Ignazio Cassis, President of the Swiss Confederation
- Yevheniia Filipenko, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN in Geneva
- Gennady Gatilov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN in Geneva
Continuity file of every spaekers under Conference Extracts
Photos on https://www.flickr.com/photos/unisgeneva
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