Statement by the Delegation of Ukraine at the General Debate of the UN General Assembly Third Committee
Chair,
Just a week ago, our leaders gathered in New York in in-person meetings caused by COVID-19after a year and a half break. At the same time, the fact that the general debate still was held in a hybrid format only reminds that the pandemic unfortunately is still with us. As we heard from all statements in the plenary, COVID-19 pandemic has devastating impact on each and every aspect of our lives.
All global issues, even climate change, have been aggravated by the pandemic. Unfortunately, the human rights have been affected by COVID-19 the most. We are deeply concerned regarding deterioration of the human rights situations in many places including in Russian Federation, Venezuela, Myanmar, DPRK, Syria to name just a few.
The state of affairs in neighboring Belarus, where human rights situation remains deplorable, is of our particular concern. The Lukashenko regime persists to deepen the rift with the Belarussian society. Recent Lukashenko-Putin talks along with the signing of 28 Union-state integration ’roadmaps’ turned into de-facto ‘Anschluss’ of Belarus by Russia as a part of Putin's policy of comprehensive swallowing of Belarus and transforming it into a new military base, similar to the occupied Crimea, to destabilize Europe.
We witness a devastating impact of conflict on human rights in Afghanistan, where situation of women, children and families is particularly threatened. In this regard, I would like to reiterate the call to provide as a matter of priority the required humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan to ensure security and prevent all forms of discrimination against women and children.
This call was made in the Statement adopted in Kyiv at the Summit of the First Ladies and Gentlemen on August 23, 2021. We invite all who could not participate in the Summit to join the Statement for further advancement in women’s and girls’ full enjoyment of humanrights, first of all in situations of armed conflicts.
Furthermore, constantly deteriorating situation with human rights in the Russian Federation continues to cause deep concern for international community. Kremlin gravely violates human rights and fundamental freedoms including by brutally suppressing peaceful political protests, killing or imprisoning opposition leaders, interfering and manipulating of the electoral process.
It is worth mentioning in this regard, that holding of the Russia’s recent elections in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine represents clear violation of the international law. It is not surprising, therefore, that the results of such a farce were not recognized by the democratic world.
The internal situation with the Russian regime, falling back to the totalitarian rule of the former Soviet Union, also guides directly Russia’s international policy. Illegal actions of the Russian Federation in the region, including Georgia and Moldova, cause massive human rights violations. My country, Ukraine, has been struggling from the Russian armed aggression for the 8th year.
Over 25 thousand people wounded, up to 15 thousand being killed (including 298 deaths on board of MH-17 flight shut down by the Russian occupation forces); 1.5 million fled their homes. Reports of the Secretary-General and OHCHR demonstrate the terrible ongoing consequences of the armed aggression against my country in Crimean peninsula and Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Russia’s unwillingness to uphold its international obligations including under international humanitarian law still persists. The voices of dissent with the occupation regime in Crimea are shut down by repressions and jail.
Ukrainians and the indigenous people – Crimean-Tatars are especially targeted by the occupying Power. Searches, arrests, imprisonment are a daily reality in Crimea. All Stalin’s repressive practices were reanimated by the Russian occupation authorities – coercive measures are implemented to force the population of Crimea to depart.
Nowadays, its authorities persecute Crimean residents for their support of the Crimea Platform – a new international consultation and coordination format aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the international response to the ongoing temporary occupation of Crimea. Mr.Nariman Dzhelyal, the First Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, and his compatriots are still illegally detained by the occupying Power for supporting the Platform.
In this connection, we do appreciate the work of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine in general. Since the protection of those who live in the conflict-affected areas was the reason for the Mission’s deployment at the request of the Government of Ukraine back in 2014, we believe that the Mission has all necessary tools and experience to track violations of the occupying Power as its priority activity as envisaged by the UNGA resolution 75/192.
Ukraine appreciates also the readiness of the Secretary-General to continue monitoring of the situation in the temporarily occupied Crimea. Guided by the mentioned resolution we expect the Secretary-General to provide good offices for ensuring the Russian Federation’s compliance with the resolution including to immediately release all almost 450 Ukrainian citizens who have been unlawfully detained, sentenced or even transferred from the occupied territories to the Russian Federation.
In conclusion, we firmly believe that until de-occupation of the Ukrainian territories is ensured it is imperative to adopt resolution on human rights situation in Crimea, which we are going to present during the current session.
In line with the UNGA resolutions we would highly appreciate also if the Secretary-General and the HRMMU would be actively engaged in the activities to implement the objectives set out by the Crimea Platform Declaration thus significantly contributing to prevention of further gross human rights violations in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
I thank you.